A decision by Canada's Federal Court this month described allegations that a contract screener at an unnamed airport double-clicked the handheld device that randomly selects airport workers for extra screening, skipping selections "for the purpose of reducing the workload for herself and colleagues during a screening shift."
Surveillance footage showed three of 64 employees sent for additional screening, a fraction of the minimum Transport Canada requires.
Similar lapses have occurred in TSA's federal workforce, and the agency's response in those cases shows what officers can face.
What TSA Has Done Before
At Honolulu, officers on one shift loaded checked bags onto flights without the required explosives screening during the last four months of 2010, according to TSA. Reports at the time put the number at thousands of bags across as many as nine daily departures. Two employees reported it. TSA fired 28 employees, three more resigned or retired, and 15 were suspended. Supervisors, the airport's federal security director, and the assistant federal security director for screening all received proposed removal letters.
At Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers, the required random secondary screening did not happen for as many as 400 passengers over two months in 2011. TSA fired five employees and suspended 38, about 15 percent of the airport's TSA workforce. A TSA spokesman said, "It's the random secondary (check) that did not happen."
At Boston Logan, a routine audit found baggage screeners distracted by phones, not watching explosives detection monitors, and skipping required hand inspections of bags that alarmed. TSA moved to fire six and suspend 14 for inattention to duty, including two managers and a supervisor, all from one baggage room.
At Newark, cameras installed in a baggage screening room in late 2011 to watch for theft produced two rounds of discipline. In June 2012, TSA fired eight screeners from a Terminal B bag room over what it alleged was sleeping on duty and failing to follow procedures; their union said none of them had been sleeping. In October, TSA proposed firing 25 more and suspending 19 for "not following procedures," calling it a matter of "zero tolerance for misconduct in the workplace." When the proceedings concluded, three were fired and 17 who had been targeted for firing were suspended.
At Atlanta in January 2019, a passenger carried a gun through a checkpoint and onto a Delta flight to Tokyo. TSA said "standard procedures were not followed," and two officers were fired. It happened during a partial government shutdown, and TSA said, "The perception that this might have occurred as a result of the partial government shutdown would be false."
Screening lapses are a standing category in TSA's own misconduct data. The Government Accountability Office found that screening and security violations made up 20 percent of roughly 9,600 TSA misconduct cases from fiscal years 2010 through 2012.
What the Agency Said About Pressure
At Honolulu, the explanation officers' representatives offered was pressure. One said there "were not enough machines to run bags through" and that "there was pressure being put on front line officers to not follow standard operating procedure." Another called it "a management failure."
TSA rejected that explanation. "The actions of the work force demonstrated a purposeful attempt to not screen bags," a spokesman said. TSA disciplined both managers and front-line officers.
The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general, reviewing the same events, reached a different conclusion about the cause. According to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser's account of the report, the lapse "might not have happened if Transportation Security Administration supervisors did a better job of overseeing the officers," or if "adequate staff and screening equipment had been provided." TSA's own investigation found that "Checked Baggage Screening SOP violations became almost normal practice."
TSA has acknowledged in its own reporting that working conditions affect performance. In a 2023 report to Congress on exit lane staffing, the agency stated that "frequent periods of low activity can cause personnel to occasionally become inattentive, increasing the likelihood of error."
The inspector general found that supervision, staffing, and equipment contributed to Honolulu.
Why It Matters Now
TSA's budget request says technology and process improvements have let the agency "maintain security standards with a smaller workforce." The Administrator told airport executives on October 6 that TSA is "not going to backfill all of these positions" lost to attrition. The draft requirements for TSA's new workforce scheduling system list a "measurable reduction in non-emergency overtime hours" as a measure of success, and would place sensors across the full checkpoint, including alarm resolution, with alerts going to supervisors.
Neither the budget request nor the draft requirements says checkpoints will be understaffed. Both plan for fewer officers and less overtime, and the inspector general linked inadequate staffing to the Honolulu lapse.
The cases above came to light through coworkers, audits, and cameras. The inspector general also tests officers covertly, and its most recent covert test of checkpoint screening was completed in November 2025, with results that are classified. The checkpoint TSA is describing will have more cameras and sensors than any of those airports had.
For the scheduling system and the checkpoint sensors, see The Software That Will Bid Your Shifts. For the staffing reductions, see Which Positions Go First.
What to Do
Do not skip the procedure, whatever the line looks like and whoever is asking. If staffing or equipment makes a procedure impossible to perform as written, tell your supervisor at the time and put it in writing afterward, with the date, the time, the position, and what was missing. If you are told to skip a step, write down who told you, when, and what was said.
A written report shows that an officer raised the problem at the time. It does not make a skipped step permissible.
Sources: Western Standard, citing Blacklock's Reporter, October 25, 2026; CNN, September 2011; ABC News, June 2012; WBUR, August 2012; CBS New York, June 28, 2012; Government Executive, October 2012; NBC New York, March 2013; New York Daily News, January 15, 2019; GAO-13-624; NBC News, 2011; Honolulu Star-Advertiser, October 10, 2012; FOX6, October 9, 2012; TSA, Exit Lane Staffing, Fiscal Year 2023, June 30, 2023; TSA FY2027 Congressional Justification; DRAFT SOO OrchestrateSI, October 19, 2026; DHS OIG-26-01.
If you are facing a proposed action over a screening lapse, contact us before you respond. againstgiantsllc.com/get-help.html or info@againstgiantsllc.com