TSA told airport to issue badge to convicted robber | Richmond Times-Dispatch

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration insisted that Richmond International Airport issue its highest-level security clearance to a TSA security officer with a felony conviction for robbery.
The current employee was 17 years old when he committed the crime and 18 when convicted. The TSA said such juvenile adjudications do not bar people from employment.
The airport would not identify the TSA employee nor reveal his age. The employee did not divulge on his application -- though a records check last fall did -- that he had been found guilty of robbery within the past 10 years.
The federal agency's demand that RIC issue the "security identification display area" badge came despite the fact that Richmond International's TSA-approved security program prohibits issuing security badges to people convicted of any disqualifying crimes.
"It is unconscionable . . . that a 17year-old person, who committed and was found guilty of a terrible crime, would be hired and works the front line of airport security," said Jon Mathiasen, RIC's president and CEO, in a letter to the TSA on Jan. 18.
The federal agency declined to comment yesterday.
The Transportation Security Administration threatened the airport with unspecified consequences, Mathiasen said, unless RIC agreed to issue the badge to the employee.
Faced with the TSA's demands "and against its own prudent judgment," the Capital Region Airport Commission, which owns and operates RIC, issued the access credentials to the federal employee late last year.
"I am outraged that in this time of national-security challenges, TSA required RIC to issue the badge," U.S. Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, wrote the TSA's acting administrator, Gale Rossides, yesterday.
"These actions by TSA defy common sense," Cantor said. "This is a matter of national security, and our citizens deserve better."
About 3.3 million air travelers will fly into and out of Richmond International this year.
RIC grants access to parts of the airport to more than 2,000 people: government officials, airline employees, air cargo workers, service contractors, general aviation company employees, construction workers and military service members.
"Security identification display area" badges allow their holders unescorted access to secured areas, including airliner parking and luggage holding areas.
The airport has denied access credentials to employees of tenants and the commission itself when checks turned up disqualifying convictions, Mathiasen said. "In the commission's case, if we're not able to issue them a badge, then they don't work for us."
TSA employs about 200 people at the airport in eastern Henrico County.
Transportation security officers' duties include handling the security screening of passengers to prevent weapons and dangerous material from being taken onto an airliner, and participating in briefings concerning security-sensitive or classified information.
The jobs pay from $25,141 to $43,357 a year.
The Transportation Security Administration rejected Mathiasen's contention that the federal agency was hiring felons for some of the most sensitive security positions in the country.
"This is simply not the case," Margot F. Bester, the TSA's principal deputy chief counsel, told Mathiasen in a Jan. 12 letter.
"Our [transportation security officers] are highly motivated and talented individuals who have come from law enforcement, the military, the business community or out of retirement following 9/11 to make air travel secure for the American people," Bester said.
Last fall, the Capital Region Airport Commission did a fingerprint and criminal history records check on the TSA employee who was seeking an upgraded security badge. "Security identification display area" badges allow their holders unescorted access to secured areas, including airliner parking and luggage holding areas.
Based on its security program, RIC denied the request. The TSA, however, said the airport had to issue the credentials because the employee met the federal agency's hiring standards.
"In a post 9/11 world," Cantor said, "I believe those who are hired with the clear mandate to ensure the safety of our nation's airports must be held to a higher standard."

I'd like to say I'm surprised.

Pretty ridiculous. Must be the son of someone. I can't imagine he's so special that he can't be replaced.