CBP Still Short on Staff, Looks to Efficiency Gains to Address Shortfall, OFO Chief Says

CORONADO, Calif. -- CBP is still about 1,800 officers short of a full cohort, and with more staffing needs on the horizon, the agency is looking to efficiency gains to make up for the shortfall, said Pete Flores, executive assistant commissioner of CBP’s Office of Field Operations, in Oct. 8 remarks at the Western Cargo Conference.

“When I came into the agency in 1988, we were short-staffed and under-budgeted,” said Flores, who took over as OFO chief in January. “I can tell you, today, we are short-staffed and under-budgeted,” he said. “That’s reality.”

The planned expansion of 26 ports of entry is “great news,” and will result in the modernization of CBP facilities and give the agency additional tools it needs to ensure national and economic security, but it will put additional staffing burdens on the agency, Flores said. “The number really starts to climb for us on what we need and what the requirements are,” he said.

As a result, CBP is considering ways to improve efficiency and its process flows to “help ourselves,” including through the use of artificial intelligence and non-intrusive inspection technologies, Flores said. One thing the agency is looking at is the ability to get information on individual trucks before they get to the primary booth so officers can “adjudicate” concerns at that point, rather than having to send the truck to secondary inspection, he said.

One area where staffing shortages are particularly acute is drawback. CBP recognizes that there is a shortage of drawback specialists, and is “trying to get our numbers back up,” said Thomas Overacker, CBP executive director-cargo conveyance and security, in response to a question following Flores’ speech.

CBP’s Centers of Excellence and Expertise “have been tasked with hiring new drawback specialists, but we’re also looking at ways to assist current staff,” he said. “We believe the realignment of drawback specialists to the Centers is really going to pay dividents, because they now have a home where their role is fully understood and appreciated.”