TSA Security Agents Patting Down You and Your Children Do Not Undergo Psychological Testing as Part of the Hiring Process

Airport Passenger Screener Charged in Distributing Child Pornography

April 23, 2011

Philly.co - A passenger screener at Philadelphia International Airport is facing charges that he distributed more than 100 images of child pornography via Facebook, records show.

Federal agents also allege that Transportation Safety Administration Officer Thomas Gordon Jr. of Philadelphia, who routinely searched airline passengers, uploaded explicit pictures of young girls to an Internet site on which he also posted a photograph of himself in his TSA uniform.

Homeland Security agents arrested the TSA officer March 24, and he is being held without bail.

Although the case was unsealed Thursday, neither the indictment nor the news release mentioned Gordon's job searching airline passengers for TSA.

It Appears That TSA Security Agents Patting Down You and Your Children Did Not Undergo Psychological Testing As Part of the Hiring Process

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Press Release
Originally Published on July 11, 2003

TSA Hiring Part-time Security Screeners at 30 Airports
Transportation Security Administration
TSA Media Contact: (571) 227-2829

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced today it will begin recruiting more than 1,300 part-time federal security screeners at 30 airports. Over the next few days, TSA will post job announcements at www.tsa.gov for positions at select airports in several cities including New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Denver, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Raleigh, New Orleans, Seattle, and Anchorage.

The addition of part-time screeners is a part of TSA's rightsizing plan and will produce the flexibility needed to optimize the scheduling process so the workforce can be applied to the workload, with special attention to the periods of peak passenger throughput.

"Once on the job these new part-time screeners will help air travelers by ensuring that checkpoint lanes are open during peak times and helping to keep wait times to a minimum," said Adm. James M. Loy, Administrator of TSA.

TSA is on track to right-size its workforce, moving to a mix of full and part-time screeners positions.

Transportation security screeners' duties include providing frontline security and protection of travelers, airports and airplanes by identifying dangerous objects in baggage and on passengers. Their job is to prevent those objects from being transported onto aircraft by utilizing diverse, cutting edge electronic detection and imaging equipment, as well as using the lessons learned from a concentrated training curriculum.

TSA will recruit part-time screeners at [various] airports. Part-time security salaries will depend upon a screener's work schedule. Hourly wages can range from $11.30 to $16.96 depending upon experience, plus locality pay depending upon the location of the airport. For example, hourly wages for part-time screeners in New York City can range from $13.21 - $19.82 a hour depending upon experience. Part-time security screeners also are eligible for federal benefits including health insurance, life insurance, retirement, paid annual (vacation) and sick leave. The amount of the premium paid for both health and life insurance and retirement as well as accrued annual (vacation) and sick leave are based upon the work schedule.

The recruiting of potential candidates is the first step in the deployment of federal screeners. Candidates need to apply on-line and must meet the minimum requirements under the law. Candidates are then assessed, hired, and required to successfully complete 44 hours of classroom instruction and 60 hours of on-the-job training. The entire process takes several weeks.

All candidates by law must meet the following minimum requirements:

• U.S. citizenship or U.S. national;
• High school diploma, GED or equivalent, or one year of security or aviation screening experience;
• English proficiency; and
• Pass a background check

The Aviation and Transportation Security Act mandates that TSA recruit, hire and train screening personnel to assume passenger and baggage screening responsibilities for the nation's commercial airports.

With the Generous Pay at the TSA, You Would Think the Government Could Be More Selective When Hiring Screening Agents

From the Transportation Security Agency Website

We are unique among our fellow Federal employees because we do not use the standard GS grading system you may be familiar with. We use an "SV" grading system, which is a system of discrete grades with pay ranges that differ from GS pay ranges. These discrete grades, which are identified by letters rather than numbers, have minimum and maximum rates.

In the table below, we show the ranges for each pay band.

Pay Band	Minimum	Maximum
A	$17,083	$24,977
B	$19,570	$28,546
C	$22,167	$33,303
D	$25,518	$38,277
E	$29,302	$44,007
F	$33,627	$50,494
G	$39,358	$60,982
H	$48,007	$74,390
I	$58,495	$90,717
J	$71,364	$110,612
K	$85,311	$132,237
L	$101,962	$155,500
M	$120,236	$155,500

The above rates are basic pay rates and do not include locality pay. 2010 basic pay rates are limited to $155,500. 2010 adjusted pay rates (base pay plus locality) are limited to $172,550.

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