TSA in turmoil, experts 'worry'

[Warlord]

The Transpor[tation Security Administration seemed to hit bottom last fall when a congressional investigation revealed misconduct by senior agency officials, a jury trial elicited testimony of on-the-job sexual harassment, and an employee survey ranked the TSA one of the worst federal workplaces.

But now as thousands of airport screeners skip work during the government shutdown, the TSA is facing a potential crisis that could hinder air travel for months, damage the struggling agency for years, and threaten aviation security.

“The concern as they get stretched more thin is that fatigue can set in and they might miss something,” John Pistole, the TSA administrator from 2010 to 2014, said in an interview. “At what point does an adversary decide they want to exploit what is by definition a more vulnerable system than if you’re at 100 percent?”

TSA Administrator David Pekoske said on Twitter Jan. 23 that “security will not be compromised” even as the agency has acknowledged that 7 percent to 10 percent of its roughly 48,000 airport screeners have taken unscheduled absences in recent days, more than double the rate from a year ago.


https://cdn.media.rollcall.com/author/2019/01/tsa-glace-rc-01.png

More:
https://www.rollcall.com/news/congress/tsa-workers-might-not-return-work-shutdown-experts-worry

[jkr]

...that not only are they h8ed, but they are not even needed...

[fedupinmo]

All of them that took unscheduled leave need to have their back pay docked.

[acptulsa]

Gee, I must be old. I remember when molesters and thieves didn't dare complain about not getting a government salary for stealing stuff and feeling people up.

[Anti Globalist]

Eliminate the TSA.

[Occam's Banana]

“The concern as they get stretched more thin is that fatigue can set in and they might miss something,” John Pistole, the TSA administrator from 2010 to 2014, said in an interview. “At what point does an adversary decide they want to exploit what is by definition a more vulnerable system than if you’re at 100 percent?”


https://i.imgur.com/ax2x6aV.png

https://i.imgflip.com/1z87c9.jpg

[Warlord]

LOL OB, that's a good meme. thanks!

[enhanced_deficit]

It should be ok, help is one the way with immediate back pay.

Trump says federal government workers are Patriots (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?530735-Trump-says-federal-government-workers-are-Patriots&)

[Occam's Banana]

LOL OB, that's a good meme. thanks!

It's also an old one. According to the 2012 Bloomberg article below, the numbers were 500 (fired or fired and arrested) to zero as of 2011.

That 500 figure has surely increased in the 8 years since ... (yet the "zero terrorists" figure remains pegged at zero ...)



TSA Arrests Raise Questions of Who Screens the Screeners
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-05-08/tsa-arrests-raise-questions-of-who-screens-the-screeners
Jeff Plungis (08 May 2012)

The arrests of U.S. Transportation Security Administration employees on charges of accepting bribes from drug-smugglers (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-04-25/tsa-screeners-at-l-a-airport-charged-with-taking-bribes-1-) is escalating calls from Republicans to overhaul an agency under fire for patting down young children and senior citizens. “They’re hiring people without checking out their backgrounds,” Representative John Mica, a Florida Republican who heads the House transportation committee, said in an interview. “It’s almost every week. We’ve had another drug ring. We’ve had smuggling. We’ve had them stealing out of people’s luggage.”

Questions about how effectively the 52,000-employee TSA is screening its screeners have added to other embarrassments for the agency, including purchases of equipment that didn’t work, checkpoint confrontations between agents and members of Congress, and missing a loaded gun that got onto an American Airlines flight at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport in January.

[...] Representative Paul Broun [...] asked the House Homeland Security Committee on May 1 to hold hearings to investigate TSA officers’ “misconduct, unprofessionalism and corruption.”

Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, started a petition this month to eliminate the agency, created by Congress to take over airport security after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In January, the Kentucky Republican set off a false alarm while passing through a screening machine, then refused to submit to a pat down.

[...]

The arrest April 25 of two current and two former TSA screeners at Los Angeles International Airport marked the third bribery case involving agency employees this year. Also in April, a TSA screener admitted to accepting $1,200 in bribes from drug traffickers sending the narcotic oxycodone from Florida to Connecticut through an airport in White Plains, New York.

Agency officers have also been accused of stealing iPads, cash, laptops and jewelry from baggage.

[...]

The TSA said in a 2008 post on its official blog that more than 200 employees had been fired for theft. Last year, taking a closer look at agency numbers, the news website New York Press concluded the number had expanded to about 500. [emphasis added - OB]

Since January, TSA agents have been accused of stealing (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/terminal/LYSEVU6MBOQR) iPads and smuggling travelers’ personal items out of the airport in a hidden jacket pocket. Agents were sentenced to jail terms after being convicted of stealing $40,000 (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-02-16/tsa-officers-will-lose-jobs-following-theft-from-luggage-at-jfk) from a checked bag at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

[...]

In cases where [...] video shows theft has occurred, the agency fires the individuals and seeks criminal prosecutions [...]

[...]

Private security companies can be held to a higher standard than the government, said Stephen Amitay, federal legislative counsel for the National Association of Security Companies (http://www.nasco.org/) in Washington. [emphasis added - and there's your problem, right there - OB]