TSA Screeners Conspired To Grope Travelers

APRIL 14--Two Transportation Security Administration screeners have been fired for conspiring to allow the fondling of attractive male travelerers passing through a security checkpoint at Denver’s airport, investigators report.

Police learned of the illicit activity last month when an official with the TSA’s inspector general’s office contacted them “in regards to a possible Unlawful Sexual Contact” at Denver International Airport, according to a Denver Police Department report first disclosed by CBS4.

As detailed by the TSA official, the screeners--a man and a woman--worked in tandem to facilitate the improper touching of male passengers.

When the male employee spotted a man he found “attractive,” he signaled the female employee “to indicate to the scanning computer that the party being screened is a female.”

By entering the wrong sex into the computer, “the scanning machine will indicate an anomaly in the genital area,” police reported. In response to this purported anomaly, the male screener would then conduct a “patdown search of that area.”

After receiving an anonymous tip about the screeners, a TSA investigator watched in February as the two workers targeted a male traveler. After the scanner “alerted to an anomaly,” the male screener proceeded to “conduct a pat down of the passenger’s front groin and buttocks.” The screener used the palms of his hands, “which is contradictory to TSA searching policy,” the police report states.

When the female worker was confronted by the TSA investigator, she confessed to participating in the screening ruse at least ten times. The woman also admitted that she knew her actions allowed the male screener to pat down men to whom he was attracted.

Both screeners--whose names have been redacted from the report--were subsequently terminated.

While the screeners have lost their jobs, they are not in danger of criminal prosecution since TSA agents were somehow unable to identify the Southwest Airlines passenger who was illegally fondled while the TSA investigator looked on.

As a result, a prosecutor with the Denver District Attorney’s Office this month “refused this case based on No Reasonable Likelihood of Conviction, and ‘No Victim,’” police noted. (2 pages)