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I’ve only been selected to pass through the so-called puffer machines once since the TSA started installing the explosives-detection machines across America nearly a year ago. But the odds of walking through one of those machines aren’t going up, either.

According to a new report in the New York Times, the TSA has halted its rollout of the puffer machines. Apparently, they don’t work as well in practice as the TSA initially thought they would when testing them in lab.

I like the IDEA of the puffer machines, which are meant to test for traces of explosive chemicals on your body, but if the system doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. I’m glad to see the government isn’t spending any more money (and travelers’ time) on them.

But the article raises a number of disturbing issues about the TSA’s relationship with technology. Ineffective solutions were generally allowed to survive, new tech wasn’t tested as intended to be implemented, and improvements/tweaks to existing procedures were ignored. Repeatedly, recommendations from research weren’t implemented in practice. For example:

…after providing a $5.3 million grant to two companies for software to speed up and increase the accuracy of 650 machines to inspect checked baggage, the T.S.A. has yet to make the changes to the machines.

Sigh. Faster, and more effective, by tweaking the software. And it hasn’t been done.

Go read the whole thing, as they say.

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tags: travel | airport security | TSA | puffers