Security Issues Cited as LAX Screeners Fired

More than 10% of security screeners at Los Angeles International Airport have been fired or had their badges revoked for poor performance, failure to submit to fingerprinting by the city or unacceptable criminal histories, government officials said Wednesday.

The employees were federal workers who had been hired within the last eight months by the Transportation Security Administration to screen passengers and baggage headed for commercial airplanes. Because they have access to restricted areas, including baggage screening stations and runways, the agency conducted background checks on all job applicants.

After several screeners disclosed to LAX officials that they had criminal records, the city conducted its own fingerprinting operation at a cost of $100,000. City officials said Wednesday that their review led to 29 screeners being disqualified for the jobs because of criminal histories ranging from weapons charges to sexual assault. Another 256 employees failed to have their fingerprints taken by the June 20 deadline.

“It is a true security failure,” said Councilman Jack Weiss, who sits on the city’s Homeland Security Cabinet and testified last week to Congress about the lack of preparedness in Los Angeles. “It raises serious concerns about the quality of personnel who are safeguarding our nation’s airlines.”

Weiss and other city officials said the transportation agency should have done a better job of screening before putting employees on the job and that it was unacceptable that many were removed only recently after months of providing security at LAX.

“We are concerned that people with serious criminal convictions in the past 10 years were allowed to work at LAX before we were able to conduct the fingerprint-based background checks,” said Paul Haney, a spokesman for the city airport department.

Transportation Security Administration representatives disputed that they missed a substantial number of criminals, noting that the agency’s own fingerprinting, completed by June 15, identified 27 of the 29 employees that the city said had serious criminal histories. Those employees have been fired or put on administrative leave, said agency spokesman Brian Turmail.

The agency’s screening “provides yet another level of confidence that the fingerprinting process we started, and finished June 15 of this year, was effective,” Turmail said.

Of the 256 screeners disqualified by the city for not submitting to city fingerprinting, Turmail said, 86 have been terminated, mostly in the last two months for performance issues, 20 are on administrative leave for performance issues, one is on indefinite suspension and seven are absent without leave.

The remainder includes 64 screeners who were planning to schedule fingerprinting by the city but had not gotten around to it, 19 who were away on active military duty, 25 away on workers’ compensation because of injuries, and the rest on sick leave or working at other airports.

An additional 26 screeners who were fingerprinted by the city were found to have problematic pasts but are appealing their disqualifications, according to records obtained after The Times filed a California Public Records Act request. Airport officials estimated that up to 10 of them may end up disqualified because of their criminal backgrounds.

‘Longer Lines’

The disqualification of 285 of the 2,615 screeners at LAX raises security issues as fewer screeners are available for the growing passenger volume expected in the summer, some experts said. Airport officials worry that fewer screeners could mean more inconvenience for passengers waiting to be screened.

“You are probably going to have longer lines because you have cut back on the number of screeners,” said Brian Sullivan, a retired FAA special agent specializing in risk management. “Is it also a problem with security? Absolutely.”

Airport officials have estimated that 2,700 screeners are needed to handle the daily traffic at LAX. Transportation agency officials said, however, that they are adequately staffing security checkpoints by having employees work overtime, and they plan to bring in dozens of part-time workers to fill any future gaps.

“Our commitment is to providing the highest level of security,” Turmail said. He said the transportation agency is closely monitoring passenger lines at security checkpoints and that individual passengers nationwide are averaging about four minutes in line. Among the 29 screeners found by the city to have disqualifying criminal histories, one had been convicted of sexual assault or rape, 10 had been convicted of felonies involving assault or theft, and seven had been convicted of unlawful possession, sale or use of an explosive or weapon.

Haney said the process reports disqualification under broad categories, so he could not say whether any screeners had been convicted of using or possessing explosives.

He said the city also is concerned that airport records indicated that the Transportation Security Administration has returned to the city 49 of the 285 deactivated badges, and has not been notifying the city within 24 hours of an employee being terminated so badges can be deactivated. The badges are required for work in secured areas of the airport.

“A basic tenet of security is you don’t want invalidated badges here at the airport,” said Paul Haney, an LAX spokesman. “We are pressing the TSA for a reconciliation of the number of TSA workers we fingerprinted and the number of active badges.”

Turmail said he believes that most of the badges have been returned but have not yet appeared in the city database.

L.A. Mayor James K. Hahn suggested Wednesday that the transportation agency might have moved too fast in hiring about 55,000 screeners last year.

“There is a lesson learned here: That while speed is important, it’s also important to be thorough,” Hahn said.

Times staff writer Jessica Garrison contributed to this report.