TSA agents fired for allegedly plotting to grope male passengers

A pair of Transportation Security Administration agents at Denver International Airport have been fired for allegedly plotting to grope male passengers. 

The agents, a male and female who have not been named, are accused of manipulating security equipment at the airport to ensure the male agent could pat down “attractive” male passengers without drawing suspicion of improper behavior, according to a Denver police report. 

{mosads}Law enforcement officials said the male TSA agent would provide a signal to a female worker when he wanted to pat down a male passenger in her lane. She would then tell the agency’s computer system that it was scanning a female passenger. The confusion would lead the scanning machine to request further inspection. 

TSA protocols normally require pat downs to be conducted by an agent of the same gender. 

“The patdown should be conducted by an officer of the same gender,” according to guidelines on the TSA website. “Sometimes, passengers must wait for an officer of the same gender to become available.”

The agency said in a statement that the alleged actions of the Denver workers “are egregious and intolerable.” 

“TSA has removed two officers from the agency,” the agency said. “All allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated by the agency. And when substantiated, employees are held accountable.”

Denver police said the inappropriate behavior was first identified by an anonymous tip.

“On 11/18/14, the TSA received an anonymous tip from an employee that a TSA screener … had told her that he ‘gropes’ males who come through the scanning machine,” the Denver Police Department said in a police report.

“He will alert another TSA screener to indicate … to the scanning computer that the party being screened is female. When the screener does this, the scanning machine will indicate an anomaly in the genital area and this allows [the male screener] to conduct a patdown search.”

— This story was updated at 10:29 a.m.