Due to the lack of specialized personnel, the Airport Security Police (PSA, for its acronym in Spanish) is only able to control 40 of the 53 national and international terminals of the country. The data leaked from the Police force and is in a report by the General Audit Office (AGN, for its acronym in Spanish) adopted this year on observations made between August 2007 and October 2008.

The PSA was created in 2005, and operates under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice, and is today's equivalent of the National Aeronautic Police (PAN), the force was born in 1977. This is the highest authority responsible for security in the call National Airport System (SNA), consisting of 53 airports and airfields.

According to the audit, the staff transferred from the PAN, specialized in territorial defense and aircraft, had to grasp a new concept of security, more related to airports. And the Higher Institute of Airport Security was created, of which 136 officers graduated in 2006 and 100 a year later. The PSA acknowledged that, with that cover, "police actions can not be effectively carried out," and that both the metropolitan airport Jorge Newbery and Minister Pistarini International Airport, "the operations are to the limit of its possibility to be performed."

These two terminals are those that have the highest flow of passengers, aircraft and at the same time, crime (see table). During the period analyzed by the AGN (2005-2007), police controls "have been centralized at the airports of Ezeiza and Aeroparque, being limited to operating in the rest of the airfields of SNA," says the report, adding that this "limitation requires a risk assessment."

But the small number of agents also affects other airports. The same PSA said in terminals with more tourist traffic, as Mar del Plata, Bariloche, El Calafate, Ushuaia, Cordoba, Mendoza or Iguazu, "staff deficiencies were recorded to meet operational control, and just enough for daily routine support of daily tasks, making it impractical to cover all of the SNA" reproduces the report.

Inspections were also "not performed with the frequency required," says the audit. In the PSA governs the National Aviation Security Program - Edition 2001 a regulation establishing surveillance methods to be applied in all terminals to determine degrees of vulnerability to acts of unlawful interference or baggage handling, for example, and punish cases of default.

According to these regulations, controls must be "at frequent intervals, at least once a year." But police said that these checks were carried out only in 2007" and partial scope since no airports and airfields that make up the URSA I-This is inspected" with this reference to the Minister Pistarini (Ezeiza) units are identified, Jorge Newbery (Aeroparque), Brigadier General Bartolome de la Colina (Mar del Plata), and Comandante Espora (Bahia Blanca). However, in August 2008 a process of updating the current regulation, according to AGN, "is in its final stage of development."

The Airport Security Police must detect crimes such as drug trafficking, smuggling, forgery, robbery and theft, fleet and fauna, heritage, breaches and violations in 53-National Airport System terminals across the country. While the AGN analyzed this body, the flow of passengers in domestic flights was 32.7 million, and international, amounted to 24.4 million.