This is a bummer. CNN was given Miami-Dade police video footage of an ongoing sting operation. The footage showed airport employees getting into the
checked luggage of unsuspecting passengers.
And these insider thefts just don't happen in Miami. A CNN analysis of passenger property loss claims filed with the TSA from 2010 to 2014 shows 30,621 claims of missing valuables, mostly packed in checked luggage. The rest occurred at security checkpoints. Total property loss claimed: $2.5 million.
John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York topped the list of airports with the most claims of thefts from luggage, followed by Los Angeles International, Orlando International and Miami International, according to the data.
Unfortunately, CNN's investigative reporting goes as far as connecting the thievery of underpaid airport workers to the possibility of some kind of terrorism threat.
"I absolutely think that if we don't pay attention to the small things that happen around here, that it could lead to much larger things. So there is, I believe, a connection between baggage theft and terrorism," Gannon [police chief at LAX] said.
Even the TSA has had problem employees. Since 2002, the agency has fired 513 officers for theft. It employs about 50,000 officers today, and last year screened more than 443 million checked bags and nearly 1.7 billion carry-ons.
This report comes on the heels of movements around the country, or at least lip-service being paid, to
tightening security at airports.
The Department of Homeland Security will review security at airports around the country after Sen. Chuck Schumer leaned on the agency to tighten up screening of staff.
The pressure came after the December arrest of five men who used Delta employees to smuggle guns from Atlanta to New York on commercial flights.
CNN doesn't connect the dots, at all, to their own reporting from back in 2003—when 9/11 was
so fresh in their minds.
The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, reported that in the year 2000 the starting salary for security screeners at 14 of the nation's 18 largest airports was $6 or less. The federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour.
And that's just one aspect of airport security.
The FAA, critics argue, is responsible for perpetuating a system of levying fines when security breaches are found rather than seeking harsher corrective measures for the airlines. It has created an environment where fines are reduced substantially in negotiations and payment is considered by many airlines as a cost of doing business, according to former FAA officials and industry experts.
Treating the wounds with a band-aid, but there is hidden camera footage!
Watch the report below the fold.