NEW YORK (AP) – The Transportation Security Administration is increasing random checks of airport and airline employees who hold badges enabling them to bypass security checkpoints. The decision follows instances in which employees used restricted entrances to smuggle guns and launder money. It’s also part of a larger push to increase airport security after the Paris terrorist attacks and the crash of a Russian jet, believed to have been brought down by a bomb. TSA spokesman Bruce Anderson wouldn’t say how frequent the additional checks would become, but pointed to a Nov. 30 statement by Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh C. Johnson saying that since April, the department has “enhanced the continuous, random screening of airport/airline personnel in secure areas.”
