TSA chief: Worker fired for sexual assault an ‘exception’

by Keith Laing - 09/03/15 3:46 PM ET

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) chief Peter Neffenger on Thursday said a TSA employee who was fired for allegedly sexually assaulting a passenger is an “exception” among the agency’s workforce.

TSA fired the worker after a 22-year-old female passenger complained to police about being forced into a public restroom and touched inappropriately by the employee under the guise of “additional screening.”

{mosads}Neffenger said the fired employee, who has not been named, is not representative of the TSA’s large workforce, which includes more than 47,000 employees.

“I think cases like that are still the exception,” he said at a news conference in Washington.

“The vast majority of people [at TSA] raise their hands [for their oaths] and taken on a very difficult job,” he continued, adding that TSA has “very high standards” that allow them to terminate employees who failed to live up the rules.

The firing stemmed from an incident at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport, where the passenger told police that a TSA employee told her she needed “additional screening” and then sexually assaulted her in a public restroom.

Neffenger said the incident does not signify the need for a change in the TSA’s screening process for new hires.

“I think what it suggests is we occasionally have some bad apples in the employment,” he said.

“That’s the reason we have such high standards,” Neffenger continued.

Homeland Security Jef Johnson defended Neffenger’s handling of the incidents that have occurred since he was sworn into the TSA job earlier this summer.

“The President and I have great confidence in him,” Johnson said of Neffenger.

Tags Transportation Security Administration