The Transportation Security Administration investigated and closed 9,622 cases of employee misconduct between 2010 and 2012, which marks a 26 percent increase in misconduct in a three-year period, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.
NBC News reports that 32 percent of the cases involved problems with workers showing up for their jobs, and 20 percent had to do with security and screening. In one case mentioned in the GAO report, an employee left an assigned TSA checkpoint to help a family member get a bag – later discovered to contain “numerous prohibited items” – past screening. The employee was suspended for seven days, the report says.
In January 2012 case, two former TSA employees were sentenced to six months in jail after they admitted to having stolen $40,000 from a bag at John F. Kennedy Airport, the article reports.
Nearly half of the misconduct cases closed by the TSA over the three-year period resulted in a letter of reprimand. Employees were suspended in 31 percent of cases, and only 17 percent of the employees were dismissed from their jobs.