The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has announced a series of airport security updates to reduce false alarm rates and improve security screening technology for transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming passengers.

A survey has found that more than 20 percent of airplane passengers had knowingly or unknowingly smuggled prohibited items past TSA checkpoints onto the aircraft.

The airport scanners that let TSA agents see through travelers’ clothes can be fairly easily obstructed from detecting concealed weapons or bombs, according to researchers from several top U.S. universities.

As part of a $2.2-billion plan over the next five years, the TSA says it will be adopting a system to identify the risk level of each bag based on information about its owner. Higher-risk passengers’ luggage would receive a more thorough screening. 

How can a federal transportation security officer’s thought process influence baggage screening decisions? The Transportation Security Administration and Sandia Research Laboratories are investigating the impacts on threat detection when officers are asked to switch between TSA Pre-Check and standard passenger lanes.

Serious shortcomings in communications between agencies left major commanders in the dark and triggered a long lag in establishing a coordinated response to last year’s shooting at Los Angeles International Airport, according to a new report.

Just minutes before a gunman opened fire in Los Angeles International Airport last fall, killing a TSA security screener and wounding three other people, the two armed security officers assigned to the area left for breaks without informing a dispatcher as required, The Associated Press reports.

The Transportation Security Administration recently issued a solicitation for “Credential Authentication Technology” (CAT) which would ensure that only legitimate airport personnel, airline crews, non-traveling passengers using a gate pass, law enforcement officers and Federal Air Marshals can be granted access to sterile airport areas.

It’s a busy week for the TSA, and not necessarily due to the holiday season. Tuesday, three bills were passed through the U.S. House of Representatives in regards to the Transportation Security Administration, all three receiving bipartisan support.

These exit pods would temporarily detain passengers before they are allowed to leave, while reducing or eliminating the need for a TSA or security officer at the terminal exits, Daily Mail reports.