TSA......again...in the news....for misconduct.....again.....

I ripped this off from ABC news via Yahoo.  As an airline employee I get a benefit of "free flying"  provided that there are empty seats where you have to go.  if the plane is full....guess what...you wait for the next plane and hope you get lucky.  I have flown a lot with Delta Airlines and our "flying benefits" are very generous compared to most airlines.  My family flys free, my Mom and Dad and my stepparents also fly for free.  Like I said, very generous allowances.  And when I fly, the gate agents and the air crews have been very good.   We at Delta know what days NOT to fly....around holidays...Monday, Friday and Sunday are difficult to fly for us.  Paying passengers get on first, and they are usually flying to and fro on those days so catching a flight is difficult.  People have said that the sky's are not so friendly as they used to be.  And from what I have seen, I tend to agree.  I believe that TSA has a lot to do with that.  After getting manhandled by the TSA trying to board, peoples temper gets short.  I have meet some very friendly and professional TSA people, they are a credit to their organization and a pleasure to deal with .  That being said, I have met some real pricks, those that what I call      " Badge Heavy".  They view their job and what authority they have as an excuse to hassle people...just for sport.  And most people will not complain...if they do, they get singled out  " for additional screening" and they miss their flight and the airlines will not refund their tickets because they were held up at security.  It is a no win for them...so they bide their time and grit their teeth, then when they get on the airplane, they are already pissed and lash out at either another passenger or at the aircrew.   I have been hassled by TSA and I dare not make a scene, for all they have to do is notify my employer and I am gone, history, outta here.  So I grit my teeth and deal with it.  My son has flown with me many times on the day trips that I take him on and so far he hasn't been hassled, that would be my Rubicon.   But I am not surprised that TSA has been busted again for misconduct.  When you work for the Feds, you have job security and it is difficult to fire a dirt-bag.  The civil service procedures are lengthy for a reason, to prevent employees from being disciplined for whistle-blowing or for not assisting in political patronage of certain groups...The IRS seems to be exempt from this belief however.  For this reason it is difficult to get rid of the dirt-bags.  In the meantime, they abuse the flying public.

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Transportation Security Administration officers were cited for more than 9,600 cases of misconduct from 2010 to 2012, according to a new government report that shows agency employees often received light punishments for sneaking prohibited items past scanners or napping on the job.

The report, released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office, found nearly 2,000 cases of screeners who were sleeping, not following procedures or allowing relatives to bypass security checkpoints. More than 3,000 screeners showed up late, not at all or left the job without permission, GAO reported.
In one instance of misconduct, a security officer left a checkpoint to help a relative check in and then came back with the family member's bag and allowed it to go around security. A TSA supervisor saw the misconduct and insisted the bag be screened, according to the report.
The bag contained "prohibited items" after it was finally screened. The report did not elaborate on the nature of the items in the bag. The screener was eventually suspended for seven days.
TSA Workers Allegedly Stealing From Passengers and Sleeping on Duty
The report also cited 56 cases of theft during the three-year span. In an undercover investigation by ABC News in 2012, 10 iPads were left at airport security checkpoints throughout the nation with a history of theft. Nine out of ten were returned, but one TSA officer, who was later fired, denied he stole an iPad when ABC News tracked the device to his home in Orlando.
But the report suggests the TSA is doing a poor job tracking the offenses and is not always handing out the punishment it should. The GAO's evaluation of TSA's 2012 data shows that 50 percent of the workers accused of sleeping on the job received less than the lowest penalty called for by TSA policies.
Forty-seven percent of the cases that GAO analyzed resulted in letters of reprimand, 31 percent resulted in suspensions of a definite duration and 17 percent resulted in the employee's removal from TSA.
"I get worried about this because in the history of air terrorism, employee security has been the one gap that has been the hardest gap to cover," aviation security expert Jeff Price.
The Top 20 Airports for TSA Theft
Following the report, the TSA released a statement saying, it holds their workers to "the highest ethical standards" and has "zero tolerance for misconduct."
"TSA concurs with GAO's four recommendations to ensure that the agency establishes a process to verify that TSA staff at airports are in compliance, and is already working to implement these recommendations," the agency added.
There are more than 56,000 screeners at the nation's airports, most doing their jobs, but the GAO's report points out the persistent and ongoing problem with those who are failing to comply with federal regulations.
Two subcommittees of the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing later today to examine how the TSA responds to reports of misbehavior and unethical conduct by its employees.
TSA Deputy Administrator John W. Halinski will represent the agency on Capitol Hill.