NEW YORK—An internal report obtained by the Newark Star-Ledger, contains evidence that a small number of security staff at Newark Liberty International Airport targeted Mexicans and Dominicans for extra security checks.
The offending officers were widely known and referred to by their colleagues as “Mexican hunters,” a few of the staff interviewed by investigators for the report, said.
The practice occurred between 2008 and 2009 at the New Jersey area airport, stopping when the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was made aware of the issue.
Former Federal Security Director Barbary Powell brought in two inquiry officers from the Boston area to investigate the allegation approximately 18 months ago, according to TSA.
The security officers, known as behavioral detection officers, or BDOs, were working for TSA’s SPOT program, or Screening Passengers by Observation Technique.
BDOs are trained to detect individuals that exhibit behavior that indicates high levels of stress, fear, or deception. Up to 70 criteria are used, according to information obtained by CNN. Details of the criteria are kept secret to protect national security.
The report’s findings were based on interviews with security staff. Some of the staffers working in the department said they were aware of the problem, and blamed the managers for encouraging it.
The report indicated that two of the four managers singled out by fellow staff, George Schultz, and Joseog Yurechko, were confronted by a number of colleagues about the high numbers of Mexicans tagged for further inspection.
The report found the certain managers wanted to make their unit appear productive by making more referrals to law enforcement. It suggested that there was a perception at Newark that the SPOT unit needed to justify its existence by producing results.
At least some officers were told by Schultz and Yurechko to make up behaviors in order to meet the minimum criteria for a referral, the investigators found.
“I did not agree or did not go along with these types of referrals, but if I was teamed up with one of these BDOs, I would go along with the referral and perform the bag check. When I disagreed with these referrals and brought it to the attention of the BDO managers, I was told by the BDO managers that I was not a team player,” Newark BDO Paul Animone told investigators.
A TSA official said the administrative inquiry found no evidence to support the allegation that SPOT was being used improperly.
“[H]owever they did identify some communications issues that may have incorrectly left some EWR BDOs with misperceptions of how work was to be conducted,” the TSA official said.
TSA said it has accepted the recommendations of the report, which include “mitigating the concerns of BDOs and strengthening supervisory communications to staff.”
“Eighteen months ago, TSA took immediate remedial action and retrained the entire behavior detection workforce at Newark,” said Lisa Farbstein, spokesperson for TSA in an e-mail.
Only one of the four BDO managers, Luis Chevere, was disciplined by TSA.
Chevere, who denied the accusations against him, was demoted to an entry-level rank by Newark’s deputy federal security director at the time, Russel McCaffery.
TSA maintains, “Referrals are based on specific observed behaviors only, not on one’s appearance, race, ethnicity or religion.”
The offending officers were widely known and referred to by their colleagues as “Mexican hunters,” a few of the staff interviewed by investigators for the report, said.
The practice occurred between 2008 and 2009 at the New Jersey area airport, stopping when the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was made aware of the issue.
Former Federal Security Director Barbary Powell brought in two inquiry officers from the Boston area to investigate the allegation approximately 18 months ago, according to TSA.
The security officers, known as behavioral detection officers, or BDOs, were working for TSA’s SPOT program, or Screening Passengers by Observation Technique.
BDOs are trained to detect individuals that exhibit behavior that indicates high levels of stress, fear, or deception. Up to 70 criteria are used, according to information obtained by CNN. Details of the criteria are kept secret to protect national security.
The report’s findings were based on interviews with security staff. Some of the staffers working in the department said they were aware of the problem, and blamed the managers for encouraging it.
The report indicated that two of the four managers singled out by fellow staff, George Schultz, and Joseog Yurechko, were confronted by a number of colleagues about the high numbers of Mexicans tagged for further inspection.
The report found the certain managers wanted to make their unit appear productive by making more referrals to law enforcement. It suggested that there was a perception at Newark that the SPOT unit needed to justify its existence by producing results.
At least some officers were told by Schultz and Yurechko to make up behaviors in order to meet the minimum criteria for a referral, the investigators found.
“I did not agree or did not go along with these types of referrals, but if I was teamed up with one of these BDOs, I would go along with the referral and perform the bag check. When I disagreed with these referrals and brought it to the attention of the BDO managers, I was told by the BDO managers that I was not a team player,” Newark BDO Paul Animone told investigators.
A TSA official said the administrative inquiry found no evidence to support the allegation that SPOT was being used improperly.
“[H]owever they did identify some communications issues that may have incorrectly left some EWR BDOs with misperceptions of how work was to be conducted,” the TSA official said.
TSA said it has accepted the recommendations of the report, which include “mitigating the concerns of BDOs and strengthening supervisory communications to staff.”
“Eighteen months ago, TSA took immediate remedial action and retrained the entire behavior detection workforce at Newark,” said Lisa Farbstein, spokesperson for TSA in an e-mail.
Only one of the four BDO managers, Luis Chevere, was disciplined by TSA.
Chevere, who denied the accusations against him, was demoted to an entry-level rank by Newark’s deputy federal security director at the time, Russel McCaffery.
TSA maintains, “Referrals are based on specific observed behaviors only, not on one’s appearance, race, ethnicity or religion.”
