TSA Tells Richmond Airport to Give Convict Full Airport Access

Dealing with the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) ever-changing rules is just one headache of many faced by airports on a daily basis. While airports have come to expect this to be a difficult proposition, every so often something happens that cracks even the most hardened airport exec. The TSA certainly confused the heck out of the Richmond International Airport in Virginia recently by telling them they had to issue a security badge to a convict. Seriously. Nothing more fun than dealing with the feds, huh?

Here's the story. The TSA hired a guy, let's call him Giancarlo, to do security work at the airport. It turns out that Giancarlo committed a robbery when he was 17 and was convicted when he was 18. According to the TSA, that's not an issue. He was still qualified for the job. But the TSA doesn't do badging; the airport does.

So, Giancarlo went to the airport to get his Security Identification Display Area (SIDA) badge which allows for access to all secure areas without an escort, as you would expect for a security officer. Only one problem. The airport uncovered the robbery in a background check, even though Giancarlo left it off his application, and refused to give him a badge. That's what the rules say in their TSA-approved security procedures. Then the TSA gave up, apologized, and went back to work. Yeah, right. No, the TSA started threatening the airport until they buckled and issued the guy a badge.

If you run an airport, or really any organization that has to deal with Homeland Security, then this is probably your worst nightmare. What happens when the government tells you to do two conflicting things? I think Richmond probably did the smart thing here by bowing to TSA pressure, but as they've said, it's not what they wanted to do.

I imagine it's relatively common to receive conflicting direction from different government agencies, but from the same one? Ugh. That's about as frustrating as it gets. I don't envy Richmond, but I think they probably did the right thing, no matter how distasteful.