Report: Las Vegas airport ranks 5th for TSA officers fired for theft

The Transportation Security Administration office serving McCarran International Airport had the fifth highest number of officers fired for theft in the country in the last 10 years, a broadcast report says.

ABC News reported that 15 TSA officers at McCarran were fired between 2002 and December 2011. The network reported the number of theft firings from 20 airports, based on data from the TSA obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

As part of an ABC sting operation, network employees deliberately left 10 iPads at TSA checkpoints in airports across the country. Nine of the iPads were returned, but one was discovered at the home of a TSA agent in Orlando, which ranked 11th on the list with 11 officer firings.

The Orlando officer was fired.

A TSA blog post about the story said that the number of officers terminated for theft represented 0.4 percent of the TSA workforce.

“We are well too aware of how the actions of a few can influence the perception the public has of our agency,” the TSA post said. “It’s truly a shame, because the majority of our workforce meets the expectations set forth to them — integrity, professionalism and hard work. The reputation of TSA is adversely affected by instances like this one, where employees do not display integrity.”

Not surprisingly, most of the thefts occurred at the nation’s busiest airports.

The worst airport for TSA theft firings was Miami International Airport with 29.

Following Miami were John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York with 27 theft firings, Los Angeles International with 24 and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport with 17. All but four of the airports on the list ABC reported are among the 20 busiest airports in the country.

Based on 2011 statistics, McCarran is the eighth busiest airport in the country by passenger boardings. McCarran reported 40.6 million passengers used the airport last year.