Controversial new airport security measures will likely remain in place since they've proven to be effective, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday. 

The security precautions have raised concerns across the nation where people say the full-body scans and pat-downs are invasive and demoralizing.

The new Transportation Security Administration policy was put in place during Thanksgiving travel season and has led to some notorious face-offs between TSA officers and airline passengers.

Napolitano "called the procedures 'objectively safer' for airline passengers and said they are part of a broader security strategy that involves cooperation with intelligence agencies, commercial airlines and international airports."

The secretary said she did not believe any changes would be made to the strategy in the "foreseeable future."

The Hill reports:

TSA, under its new policy, must screen airline passengers using whole-body imaging systems. But passengers who feel that the scans are too intrusive are permitted to go through a metal detector or receive a pat-down, which some have said comes too close to groping.

According to TSA estimates only 3 percent of passengers have been subject to pat-downs, and only after they have failed a metal detector test or refused to go through a full-body scanner.

Napolitano also dismissed a report that showed TSA checkpoint at some major airports fail to detect contraband like firearms and other weapons as high as 70 percent of the time, calling the studies "old and out of date" and claiming many of them have "methodology issues."