Sources: DIA Doesn't Individually Screen Employees
DENVER (CBS4) - After five people were arrested in an employee-assisted gun-smuggling scheme out of Atlanta's airport, officials with the Transportation Security Administration said this week that it takes insider threats seriously.
It said it administers security threat assessments and does criminal checks for all airline employee prior to their receiving credentials and access privileges.
In 2008, CBS4 conducted a hidden-camera investigation to reveal how employees going to concourses enter the airport. They show an ID badge, then apply their finger to a biometric print reader. Then they go through a turnstile and walk right past metal detectors and x-ray machines without their bags being examined.
Sources now say the process hasn't changed significantly. A lack of funding is the big reason.
The TSA relies on background checks and other layered measures rather than screening the workers individually as they do the passengers.
Passenger security has been effective in locating weapons. So far this year 65 weapons have been seized at DIA. That includes an inert hand grenade.
