WASHINGTON, DC – It’s not from lack of feeling, but the Transportation Security Administration has trouble making friends.
Now a new government report gives flyers a few more reasons to look at workers with a wary eye. It reportedly notes 9000 cases of screener misconduct in a three year span, and documents 56 screeners involved in thefts. On top of that, the report also notes more than 1900 other incidents as well, like sleeping on the job and letting friends and family sneak through security.
On the flip side, the screeners’ union says people should consider the numbers.
“If you look at a population the size of a small city, [there are] 56,000 people in this work force, and the numbers [of misconduct] then on an annual basis are then really really small,” says David Borer, General Counsel of the American Federation of Government Employees.
Of course passengers are not always perfect either. One guy just got his wrist-slapped for abandoning his bags at the check-in counter in Seattle. Apparently he wasn’t cool with the $1400 bill, so he just left! That move led to the Delta counter closing-down for two hours so his bags could be sniffed and screened.
There’s just a ton of plane paranoia in airports.
