"New Orleans airport screeners seek to restore reputation"

Monday, July 12, 2004

Airport screeners seek to restore reputation
Agency moving forward after awkward missteps 
By Michelle Hunter
The New Orleans (LA) Times Picayune


Shanna Schexnayder has heard the comments, some barely audible and
others loud and angry, in the three weeks since 13 of her co-workers
were arrested on charges of stealing valuables from passenger luggage at
Louis Armstrong International Airport. 

Schexnayder is not one of the suspects, but she has experienced the
tailspin in screeners' morale and felt the uneasy looks from many
passengers. 
     
"You get bothered by it," said Schexnayder, 23. "Everybody suffers for
the bad." 

Her boss, Michael Robinson, the U.S. Transportation Security
Administration director at Armstrong, said the actions of a few bad
apples shattered public trust, left co-workers feeling violated and
tainted the organization that is supposed to be keeping terrorists off
airplanes. 

"For that, we apologize," Robinson said recently in an interview marking
his first public comments since about 4 percent of his workforce was
arrested. 

Robinson was appointed as Armstrong's federal security director in
March, to replace Robert Besal. He came to New Orleans from the agency's
headquarters in Arlington, Va.. He had served there since the agency's
inception 2 ½ years ago, as assistant administrator for aviation
operations throughout the United States. 

While decrying the crimes at Armstrong, Robinson said the agency is
moving forward and that travelers have good reason to fly without fear
of theft. 

The public, he said, "should feel confident that we've identified the
problem, we've gotten to the bottom of it, and we've corrected it." 

The roundup was the largest in the country for the TSA, which was
created by Congress to keep the skies safe in the wake of the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks. The arrested screeners remain on suspension
until their criminal cases are resolved. 

The shakeup has taken a toll on their remaining 350 co-workers at
Armstrong. Morale is low among many employees, while passengers are
eyeing screeners with suspicion. 

However, Robinson sees the arrests as good news. The organization has
sifted out the unsuitable, he said, leaving a workforce committed to the
security and safety of the traveling public. What's more, the New
Orleans airport is the first in the country scheduled to receive more
than 100 advanced security cameras, a move already in the works before
the arrests, at checkpoints and baggage screening areas. 

Awaiting justice 

Word of the investigation at Armstrong broke last month when the
Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office announced the arrests of nine federal
screeners, including some who had been caught on existing surveillance
cameras pilfering valuables from passenger baggage. Soon, four more
screeners were arrested. The inquiry began in May after a co-worker blew
the whistle on fellow employees, telling investigators she had witnessed
some screeners taking items from luggage and divvying up the stolen loot
in an employee parking lot. 

"I was disappointed," Robinson said. "But I'm absolutely intolerant of
that behavior." 

The arrested screeners were suspended with pay, and Robinson called a
series of meetings with the remaining employees to explain what had
happened and reiterate the expectations and the rules of the job. 

The federal screeners at Armstrong are part of a 45,000-employee TSA
workforce. The agency took control of security at the country's 453
commercial airports in November 2001, two months after terrorists armed
with box cutters hijacked four airplanes and crashed them into the World
Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. 

Screeners search people, carry-on bags and 100 percent of all checked
baggage for weapons and explosives. 

"What we're doing is looking for a needle in a haystack, that one
terrorist with that one gun or that one bomb with the intent to bring
that plane out of the sky," Robinson said. 

At Armstrong, screeners search about 500,000 people and 750,000 bags
each month, officials said. But in a tourist town such as New Orleans,
some months can be much more brutal. Last weekend, for example, 50,000
travelers were in town for the Essence Music Festival. To keep skills
sharp, screeners attend a mandatory three hours of training a week and
take an annual certification test. 

Growing pains 

In the rush to create the TSA in 2001 and 2002, the hiring and training
of 55,000 screeners for both people and baggage screening was
cost-prohibitive, Robinson said. Some of the early hires were trained to
search people, while others learned to inspect luggage. Now, trainers
are filling in the gaps to make the workforce more flexible. 

"TSA is only two years old," Robinson said. "We stood it up very
rapidly. It is an immature organization from that point." 

Agency officials admitted in June 2003 that screeners across the country
were hired before full background checks had been completed, spokeswoman
Andrea McCauley said. The administration overhauled the process and
completed the checks by the fall of 2003, firing all workers with a
criminal history. 

Neither Robinson nor McCauley would comment directly on the Armstrong
investigation or the backgrounds of the employees who were arrested.
McCauley has said the background checks are very thorough and that no
one with a felony conviction or misdemeanor theft conviction may work
for the organization. 

"But background checks can't predict a crime for someone who hasn't
participated in a crime before," McCauley said. 

Not alone 

Still, with roughly 3.6 percent of the agency's local staff accused of
theft, questions about the background checks and the organization's
employee screening process are inevitable. 

If the number of arrests seem high, that's because they are, said Chris
Thompson, past president of the National Human Resources Association. 

"Any time an employer of any size has multiple numbers of employees who
are victimizing people in a criminal way, it's a grave concern." he
said. "But those kinds of numbers are way outside the norm." 

Not that Armstrong is the only airport with screeners accused of
stealing. In April, four federal screeners at Detroit Metro Airport were
indicted on charges of lifting laptop computers, digital cameras and
other electronics from luggage. Four screeners were booked in June with
taking cash, credit cards, jewelry and electronic equipment from checked
bags at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida.
Individual screeners have been arrested at several other airports. 

Armstrong tops the list with the largest bust in TSA's young history.
But McCauley said that does not mean New Orleans has the most
crime-prone batch of screeners in the country. 

"I think it was an unusual and unfortunate circumstance. You had several
people coming together who were like-minded. You can't say the New
Orleans workforce is more criminal," she said. 

Robinson said he doesn't expect any more thefts, because the agency's
reaction to reports of crime was swift and certain. 

"This investigation was the result of information which came to my desk
from TSA employees. We acted immediately on that. We took it upon
ourselves," Robinson said. 

Still, word of the thefts irked a traveling public already wary of
strangers poking through their personal belongings. Screeners say they
understand the mistrust. "I would feel the same," screener Amanda
Hudson, 26, said. 

"You feel like, 'It wasn't me,' " Schexnayder said, describing her
reaction, as a screener, to the arrests. "But if one person did it, then
everybody did it." 

The screeners say they've learned to ignore the occasional disparaging
remark and get on with the job. Part of that means restoring the
public's trust. Encountering a federal screener shouldn't be a
frightening experience, Robinson said. 

Keeping an eye on things 

Aside from undisclosed checks and balances in place to prevent a
recurrence of the thefts, Robinson said an experimental program
sponsored by the TSA to install surveillance cameras around Armstrong
should put travelers at ease. Since April, the agency has tested cameras
at the passenger checkpoint on Concourse C. Workers will begin
installing more than 100 cameras on the remaining three concourses and
in baggage screening areas this month. Although the airport already had
cameras of its own in some locations, Armstrong will be the first in the
country to receive this new surveillance system. With it, officials will
be able to monitor the airport from a centralized location through
cameras that offer multiple angles with zooming capabilities and fine
detail. The decision to participate in the program came well before the
theft investigation and Robinson's appointment to Armstrong in March,
said the airport's aviation director, Roy Williams. 

Robinson likened the new surveillance system to cameras in police patrol
cars that let others see not only the behavior of the driver who is
being stopped but the police officer as well. 

A few weeks ago, Robinson said, a woman reported that her bracelet had
been stolen by a screener at a checkpoint with the experimental
surveillance equipment. A check of the video showed that a traveler who
passed through the metal detector in front of the woman had taken the
bracelet. 

In addition to helping identify suspected terrorists and deter thefts,
the cameras will help officials keep an eye on checkpoint lines and
dispatch additional screeners if lines are long or problems arise. 

The Sheriff's Office has said the Armstrong investigation is not over,
although no more arrests have been made since June 24. But screeners at
the airport want to put the affair behind them and focus on the mission
of the agency, to move air travelers safely from one point to another. 

"This is not a simple task. This is not an easy task," Robinson said.
"It's a tremendous responsibility, and the workforce takes it
seriously."


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