Charges: TSA supervisor took 42 pictures of 'young females' at MSP Airport
A Transportation Security Administration employee at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is accused of taken dozens of photos of women during preflight screenings.
Bjorn Broms, 37, of Savage, was charged in Hennepin County District Court on Monday with violation of the government data practices act, a misdemeanor.
The charges stem from video Broms took on his phone of closed-circuit video (CCTV) of a boy who rode a luggage carousel at MSP Airport on May 1 and sent to MPR, the criminal complaint states. MPR published the video and a story about the incident on May 2.
While looking into the unauthorized release of the CCTV footage of the boy riding the luggage carousel, investigators found 42 pictures of "young females that were wearing shorts, tight pants, tank tops, or had the top portions of their breasts exposed at the top of their shirt" on Broms' personal cell phone, charges state. The women were going through a TSA screening checkpoint, with the photos taken between March 8, 2020, and March 27, 2021.
Investigators determined the photos weren't for work because they were taken on Broms' personal cell phone, charges say. And because the photos were taken of the CCTV footage, they fall under non-public government data.
Broms was charged in connection to sharing the video of the boy, who climbed onto a luggage conveyor belt behind the Delta Air Lines ticket counter and went on a brief ride before being found unharmed, the criminal complaint says.
A fellow TSA worker told investigators she overheard Broms saying, "I should sell this to the news. I would make quite a bit of money."
Broms is a supervisory TSA officer who has worked with the TSA since June 2007, Jessica Mayle, a TSA spokesperson, told Bring Me The News. In a statement, TSA said:
"TSA is cooperating with the MSP Airport Police Department and the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission regarding their investigation. The subject, who has been criminally charged, is on administrative leave. TSA takes passenger privacy very seriously and will refer further comment on this matter to law enforcement."
According to the criminal complaint, video recordings of non-public areas of the airport are not public data because it could potentially contain Security Sensitive Information (SSI). Because of this, it is protected from unauthorized viewing, copying, or disclosing without express consent from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport Police Department.
