Twenty-Six Percent Increase Reported Over Three Years (2010-2012)

The chairman of a congressional subcommittee on oversight and management efficiency called on the Transportation Security Administration to "earn America's trust and confidence," in a hearing last week after a watchdog report showed a 26% spike in TSA employee misconduct. The report examined the years 2010 to 2012.

NBC News says the report, prepared by the Government Accountability Office, was released last Tuesday, just one day in advance of a hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee that included representatives from the TSA. The report said the TSA investigated and closed 9,622 cases of employee misconduct that included tardiness, sleeping on the job, baggage theft and more. Almost one-third of the cases (32%) involved problems with employees just showing up for work while another 20 percent had to do with security and screening.

In one case, an employee was suspended for seven days after leaving an assigned security check point to help a family member get a bag through security. The bag was later found to contain "numerous prohibited items."

In another case from January 2012, two former employees of the TSA were sentenced to six months in jail after they admitted to have stolen $40,000 from a bag at John F. Kennedy Airport, NBC New York reported.

In more than half of the cases employees received only a letter of reprimand, while 31% received suspensions and only in 17% of the cases were the employees terminated.

TSA Deputy Administrator John Halinski said that in cases where it can be immediately proved that an employee committed a form of misconduct, “I’m going to walk him out the door.” Most cases of alleged wrongdoing require an investigation, he said.

Rep. Jeff Duncan, (R-SC), the chairman of the subcommittee on oversight and management efficiency, called the offenders "bad apples" but said on Wednesday that those few bad employees contributed to a poor public perception for the agency.

“While I know that there are many thousands of hardworking, dedicated employees working at airports throughout the country, and it’s unfair to generalize to the whole workforce, unfortunately a few bad apples can ruin the bunch,” Duncan said. “These findings are especially hard to stomach since so many Americans todays are sick of being groped, interrogated, and treated like criminals when passing through checkpoints.”

“If integrity is truly a core value, then, TSA, it’s time to prove it. Stop with the napping, the stealing, the tardiness, and the disrespect, and earn America’s trust and confidence,” Duncan said.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, (D-MS), said part of the problem is inconsistency in punishment and that strict guidelines for discipline are needed. “The bulk of employee misconduct cases are handled at the airport level, meaning that what happens at one airport may differ from what happens at another,” Thompson said in an opening statement.

The GAO report included four recommendations for executive action, all of which have been endorsed by the TSA, Lord said on Wednesday. The recommendations include developing guidelines to record and report misconduct for TSA officials at all airports and establish a review process for all allegations of misbehavior.

The agency is nearly 12 years old, and has 55,000 employees and a budget of more than $7.5 billion.

FMI: www.usnews.nbcnews.com, www.tsa.gov