Agencies to screen airport security employees

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Transportation Department’s inspector general and the Federal Aviation Administration are reviewing passenger screening operations at 14 airports, including the three where hijackers took off Sept. 11.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is among the 14.

The audits were announced Friday after federal prosecutors accused the company running the security checkpoints of failing to check employees’ backgrounds adequately.

David Barnes, spokesman for Inspector General Kenneth Mead, said the investigators will employee background checks and make sure the workers have been properly trained at all 14 airports.

Separately, FAA investigators next week will audit background checks of all security screeners at the 20 largest airports, the agency said Friday.

Argenbright Security Inc. handles passenger screening at Washington Dulles and Newark airports, where two of the hijacked planes took off. The company also provides security at Boston’s Logan Airport, but does not work for United or American, the airlines whose planes were hijacked from there and crashed into the World Trade Center.

Mead acted after federal prosecutors found that Argenbright had hired criminals to staff security checkpoints at Philadelphia International Airport even after being fined $1 million last year for failing to check the backgrounds of its workers.

In filing a motion against Argenbright on Thursday, U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan said inspectors found the company failed to do adequate background checks of employees at the 13 other airports.

Federal prosecutors are seeking new sanctions against the firm, and a special Transportation Department enforcement team was sent to the Philadelphia airport to make sure that security officers received thorough background checks before being hired.

Argenbright pleaded guilty last year to violating federal rules on training, testing and conducting background checks on employees. It paid a $1 million fine, was placed on probation for three years and agreed to conduct background checks on employees nationwide.

The latest filing accused Argenbright of still not checking employee backgrounds adequately. Meehan said he wanted new sanctions, including an order that the company regularly audit its workforce and fingerprint all employees.

Argenbright President Bill Barbour said the company was willing to make the changes, including fingerprinting of employees. Barbour disputed allegations that the problems were widespread.

Until June, Argenbright ran security at one concourse at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The company now has no security function at Sea-Tac, but it does have some employees providing wheelchair and other services to passengers in the terminal, airport spokeswoman Deanna Zachrisson said.

She said Sea-Tac officials had been informed Friday that Argenbright would be audited, but they did not know when the audit would take place. She was unsure how many employees Argenbright had at Sea-Tac, or with which airlines the company contracted at the airport.

A call to Argenbright’s office near Sea-Tac was not immediately returned Friday evening.

In addition to Seattle, Boston, Newark and Washington Dulles, the joint FAA-inspector general teams will visit Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Columbus, Ohio; Detroit; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; New York LaGuardia; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Trenton, N.J.; and Washington Reagan National.