Despite repeated concerns of officer incompetence at Customs and Border Protection (CBP) security check points, the agency has demonstrated improvements in its training, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report (GAO-13-768R) released yesterday.
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| Photo: CBP.gov |
GAO first made recommendations to CBP, a division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in December 2011. CBP had improved training for its new officers, but GAO found that follow-up training for incumbent officers was lacking. GAO also determined that CBP did not have a systematic method for evaluating the training’s effectiveness.
Of the 22,000 total CBP officers, GAO found that 4,000 continuing officers had not completed follow-on training. CBP responded that its records were incomplete and that it was unlikely that 4,000 officers had not received required training.
In a previous report from 2007, GAO identified weaknesses at ports of entry where officers are responsible for verifying travel documents. CBP had performed multiple covert tests with falsified or altered documents to measure officers’ success rates in determining fraud. GAO did not publish statistics on the results, but it noted that at two locations undercover inspectors were not asked for travel documents.
The report released on Wednesday concludes that CBP has succeeded in implementing three of four recommendations:
– CBP completed comprehensive assessment of the covert test results at ports of entry.
– CBP established a national policy and corresponding standard operating procedures that specify who is accountable for overseeing training.
– CBP assessed skill gaps in incumbent officers.
The remaining recommendation–to evaluate both new and continuing officer training–is still in progress. CBP has evaluated basic officer training, but it expects to complete its assessment of incumbent officer training in November.
GAO and CBP have not publicly released specifics on covert test results, the content of new policies and procedures or officer skill gaps. GAO maintains non-public Sensitive Security Information (SSI) reports in addition to the published reports.