TSA screeners fired for setting up, groping passengers

DENVER – The Transportation Security Administration has fired two screening agents following an investigation into allegations they conspired to target certain passengers for extra screening, with the intended purpose of groping men one of the agents found attractive.

The TSA contacted the Denver Police Department's sex crimes unit in mid-March to report they had received an anonymous tip on Nov.18, 2014 that a screener had confessed that he "gropes males who come through the screening area."

According to a police report, the anonymous tipster also said that when the screener saw an attractive man in line, he alerted another TSA screener to trigger the full-body scanner into a false alert indicating the need for a pat down of the passenger's genital area.

A TSA investigator told DPD that he observed the scheme on Feb. 9 at about 9:25 a.m.

In the DPD report, the investigator describes watching one screener give a signal to another in charge of the screening machine. The investigator then watched the signaled screener enter the scanner and press the button for female. Then, the investigator reported to DPD, he watched the first screener "conduct a pat down of the passenger's front groin and buttocks area with the palms of his hands, which is contradictory to TSA searching policy."

When the investigator confronted the screener who changed the passenger's gender on the scanner, she admitted to doing so "at least 10 other times."

Both screeners were terminated. DPD brought the case to the Denver District Attorney's Office, who says no victims have come forward in the case so they cannot pursue charges.

"These alleged acts are egregious and intolerable," the TSA said in a statement. " All allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated by the agency. And when substantiated, employees are held accountable."