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44 TSA Employees Set to Be Fired or Suspended for Not Properly Searching Bags at Newark Airport

Oct. 19, 2012 4:10pm Madeleine Morgenstern

A TSA agent works at a security screening area at Newark Liberty International Airport, Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010, in Newark, N.J.

The Transportation Security Administration said Friday it plans to fire 25 employees at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport and suspend 19 others for not following proper baggage screening procedure.

The announcement capped a year-long investigation in which approximately 250 checked bags were determined not to have been properly screened in one baggage room during November and December 2011, a TSA official told TheBlaze.

The TSA had been conducting an unrelated investigation into reports that an employee was stealing from checked bags, the New Jersey Star-Ledger reported. A review of closed-circuit footage by the agency’s Office of Inspector General found that screening procedures were not being followed properly. According to the Star-Ledger, “dozens of screeners” were caught on tape “failing to physically search bags that had been flagged during the X-ray process.”

“TSA holds all of its employees to the highest professional and ethical standards and has a zero tolerance for misconduct in the workplace,” TSA spokesman Nico Melendez told TheBlaze in a statement. “Accountability is an important aspect of our work and TSA takes prompt and appropriate action with any employee who does not follow our procedures and engages in misconduct.”

Eight employees were fired in June as a result of the investigation; the additional 44 employees announced Friday raises the total number to 52, making it the largest disciplinary action undertaken by the TSA at a U.S. airport, according to the Associated Press. The latest group of workers includes TSA screeners and the managers who failed to supervise them.

The TSA said all screeners cited for failing to follow protocol were removed from their jobs in November and December and given non-screening duties pending the outcome of the investigation, the AP reported.

A TSA official told TheBlaze the agency believes it has identified all individuals involved and that it regularly tests security operations to make sure proper procedures are followed.

The official would not specifically say whether there had been a threat to public safety, saying only that the agency uses a “multi-layered approach to airport security,” each of which alone is “capable of stopping a terrorist attack.”

“In combination, their security value is multiplied, creating a robust, formidable system. A terrorist who has to overcome multiple security layers in order to carry out an attack is more likely to be preempted, deterred or to fail during the attempt,” the official said.

The employees set for suspension or firing have the right to appeal the TSA’s planned action; Stacy Dodtmann of the American Federation of Government Employees told the AP the union will likely seek to have the charges dismissed.

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Comments (32)

duckwalker
Posted on October 20, 2012 at 9:40am
They got caught not doing their jobs… because cameras were installed to catch them stealing!!!!!!!!!!! I’m sure TSA has some nice folks, but so did the Brown Shirt Nazis in Hitlers Germany. Then they quickly lost respect and tolerance and turned on even their own families. Similarities between TSA and Brown Shirt Naziz is scary. This is a bad bad agency. Imagine, the reason cameras were installed was they were stealing so much from luggage. They didn’t have time to do their jobs. Are these people supervised? I would bet so, but the supervisors are theives and lazy as well. Otherwise this wouldn’t happen.

Thet TSA has a culture of coruption that has quickly grown out of control, and their lack or respect for the traving public in asstounding. Just wait until they move out of the airports and start stopping your car on the freeway, or searching(stealing from you) your bags on the train and bus. Oh, wait, they already are. How soon before they “need ” to start searching our homes? It can and will happen, if you don’t draw a line in the sand soon.

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- dmerwin
  Posted on October 21, 2012 at 9:50am
  I would be interested to know what were the mitigating factors for the 19 under suspension. To me, zero tolerance is pretty clear guidance.
  
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mildot rider
Posted on October 20, 2012 at 9:18am
Wake up people…the TSA is a filthy marxist run prelude to the mind numbing control and humiliation that these commies want in every American city. These thugs violate your Constitutional rights and you let them. Their vision under the current regime has them throwing up roadblocks on the freeway..anywhere, anytime and you will be subject to a patdown and search. You will be asked for your papers very soon. You will travel when they say you will travel.

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Bluefish49
Posted on October 20, 2012 at 9:04am
Oh great…I go through there all the time….as it is now it takes forever….now I’ll have to take a sleeping bag.

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fuzzy20841
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 5:57pm
Does anyone know if TSA gropers are union. I seem to remember when that agency was started that we were told , no union, costs were to be kept low, etc. I also remember hearing that we hired TSA employees at a figure just above minimum wage? Does anyone know what the average wage is today?
Thanks

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- Halloween
  Posted on October 21, 2012 at 9:15pm
  TSA is unionized. What they make in wages is not clear but it is more than they could make doing something else.
  
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Odyessy
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 5:52pm
For a good time call 1-800-TSA-AGENT

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resme
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 5:41pm
What kind of person takes a job just to feel up little kids? TSA! TSA! TSA!, Err, I mean USA! USA! USA!.

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possom
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 5:36pm
44 TSA Employees Set to Be Fired or Suspended for Not Properly Searching Bags, Are you sure their not being fired for not meeting their quota for groping enough old people and little kid’s? Or maybe stealing thing’s out of the luggage.

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- BonnieC3
  Posted on October 20, 2012 at 11:17am
  I recently went to a Romney rally. Going through security and looking at who was doing the screening and who the security people were, I became very concerned for Romney’s safety. The town the rally was in is known as an extremely liberal area. The security was all local for the convention center and therefore local people who are pro liberal and pro Obama. As I watched how my bag was checked and how big long lens cameras were passed right through, I got a funny feeling. Then during the rally, as Romney spoke and a guy shouldered past me with a big long lens camera for an up-close shot from about 25′ away… I became extremely nervous for Romney’s safety. Please, everybody, pray for Romney… and Obama’s… safety in these last days!
  
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HOOT_OWL
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 5:08pm
So NOW they hold to the highest of standards..!
Just like how they rounded up all the head shops owners in cali..! …lol
During election season..!
This Administration is pretty transparent on this issue.
Zero tolerance ……when Obama job is at stake..!

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hauschild
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 5:03pm
How’s about we fire ALL government workers and maybe regain our solvency in the process.

Think about how evil was the mind that dreamed up the notion of a government worker – and more evil, he who put it into practice.

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endthemindlessspending
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:58pm
Is anyone else seeing lots of ads featuring Moochele? They are ******* me off, the Blaze shouldn’t be promoting Obama.

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- rickc34
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 5:42pm
  Glens taking money from the enemy
  
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- resme
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 5:51pm
  If you use Firefox, Download Adblock plus 2.0.3, It also blocks Pesky youtube commercials.
  
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justangry
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:53pm
All of them could be begging for more porridge at the soup kitchen for all I care.

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endthemindlessspending
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:52pm
What is up with all the Moochele ads on the Blaze today? They are getting very annoying, and shouldn’t be on the Blaze.

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The-Monk
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:51pm
“44 TSA Employees Set to Be Fired or Suspended for Not Properly Searching Bags at Newark Airport”

What happened!!! They missed some good stuff to steal?

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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 7:14pm
  Hi MONK, apparently a few iPads slipped through costing Craigs List and eBay a small fortune.
  
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AJAYW
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:39pm
obama and holder will get involved and they will not get fired.

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Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:34pm
I wonder if they were predominately muslims. The next time you have to o through TSA, tell them you are a pig farmer, or a pork producer and that you might have a little bacon grease on your suitcase.

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- justangry
  Posted on October 20, 2012 at 11:41am
  How did your brother-in-law vote on the TSA, DHS, Patriot Act, etc.?
  
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Proverbs17-12NLT
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:32pm
Now the unemployment rate will come down to 6.8%

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COFemale
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:23pm
“TSA holds all of its employees to the highest professional and ethical standards and has a zero tolerance for misconduct in the workplace,” TSA spokesman Nico Melendez told TheBlaze in a statement. “Accountability is an important aspect of our work and TSA takes prompt and appropriate action with any employee who does not follow our procedures and engages in misconduct.”

Funny, TSA has no problem sexually assaulting Dana Loesch at an AZ airport with no consequences, yet here bags weren’t searched in Dec 2011. Isn’t it a little late to punish the culprits after the fact with firing?. Nothing happened. Reprimand them and tell them if it happens again they will be dismissed.

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barber2
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:22pm
Just returned from Johannesburg where their security screeners were far too busy talking to one another to be bothered to actually check bags. Amazing. Well, maybe that is why they had about four different security checks. Amazing .

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- justangry
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 5:27pm
  Ah, I’m sorry your gay fantasies weren’t fulfilled. Better luck next time… Meanwhile I read today that you’re more than 4 time more likely to be struck by lightening than killed by a terrorists.
  
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- resme
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 5:45pm
  TSA Brought to you by the ever loving GOP supa stars.
  
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progressiveslayer
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:14pm
I have a better idea abolish the unconstitutional TSA,they sexually assault passengers daily and violate our fourth amendment right.

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- Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:26pm
  Amen to that.
  
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- Lachoneous
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 4:38pm
  Actually, all of the TSA people who grope old ladies and children are probably praised and promoted for their “Non-biased” application of the TSA rules. It appears that only the ones caught stealing or letting some mother take her breast milk through the check point are fired. They are doing what government agencies do best, cultivating stupidity.
  
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- justangry
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 5:18pm
  @ProgSlayer, Enjoy
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_j6Z2gPX_U
  
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- progressiveslayer
  Posted on October 19, 2012 at 6:55pm
  Justangry That video is indeed twisted on many levels,sadly it’s the truth about air travel in America.
  
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