Report catalogues problems in US air marshals service

US Federal air marshals have slept on the job, tested positive for alcohol or drugs while on duty, lost their weapons and falsified information, the Homeland Security Department's inspector general said Monday in a scathing report on the air marshals program.

The government logged 753 incidents of misconduct by air marshals during an eight-month period in 2002, according to the report. The report criticizes the undercover program as being too lenient on officers involved in misconduct. Most were placed on leave with pay after the incidents.

"In many cases, air marshals were placed on administrative leave for extended periods of time," the report said. "In similar cases, a screener (security checkpoint worker) would have been placed on leave without pay or dismissed."

The report also said 161 applicants to the air marshals program made it through a preliminary step in the hiring process despite problems that included accusations of domestic violence, drunken driving or sexual harassment. None of those applicants wound up being hired, however.

Homeland Security spokesman Brian Doyle said hiring guidelines for the program have since been changed. Even though the applicants were approved for consideration, Doyle said, all were eventually rejected because of concerns about their backgrounds.

Asa Hutchinson, chief of border and transportation security at the department, said new guidelines are also in place to make marshals more accountable.

Parts of the report were blacked out because many details about the air marshals service are classified for security reasons, including the precise number of marshals guarding commercial flights.

Before the Sept. 11 attacks, there were only a few dozen "sky marshals," and they flew mainly on foreign trips. After 9/11, several thousand new marshals were hired to also fly on domestic routes as one of many government efforts to protect against future acts of terrorism.

The armed marshals pose as regular passengers on flights. Their identities and routes are kept secret by the government.

Hutchinson disputed the report's finding that there were 753 disciplinary reports in 2002. He said that those reports were logged over a 22-month period, from 2002 to 2004, and that there were 717 cases.

Further, he wrote in a response to the report that most of the cases were "much less serious, but much more common allegations ... like rude behavior by a (federal air marshal) during the check-in process."

The inspector general's report also questioned why marshals had been given $6.5 million in cash travel advances when they are reimbursed every two weeks under a travel voucher system. The report recommended discontinuing travel advances; the department agreed with that recommendation.

Source: Agencies