Firm Tracked Undercover Agents

Here's a surefire way to improve your job performance stats... it appears screeners at San Francisco International have been getting a heads up from the Transportation Security Administration before security inspections.

San Francisco television station KVSU-2 reports undercover agents were checking to see how well screeners detected weapons and bombs. SFO uses private security firm Covenant Aviation Security, with special congressional approval.

A former Covenant employee told investigators in February 2005 the firm's management was warned ahead of time about the inspections, allowing them to track undercover testers as they made their way through the airport. The Associated Press obtained a copy of a government report confirming those allegations.

The company used surveillance cameras to track the undercover agents, and warned screeners as they approached checkpoints. Those inspections occurred between August of 2003 and May 2004, according to the TSA inspector general.

The inspector general's office also found one security breach at SFO that TSA officials did not report... but found no evidence of malicious intent in the oversight.

And the aftermath? Covenant management ordered the practice oof monitoring inspectors stopped... and the TSA says that's good enough for them.

"We've taken the measures necessary to ensure something like this can never happen again," said TSA spokesman Nico Melendez.

In related news... the TSA renewed Covenant's contract to watch over SFO last month.

FMI: www.tsa.gov, www.covenantsecurity.com/