NASA Announces It Will Be Randomly Searching Employees

Yahoo

2 days ago

As NASA reels from massive budget cuts by Donald Trump's White House, the space agency seems to be clamping down hard on physical security measures.
An internal memo shared by Keith Cowing, a former NASA astrobiologist who now blogs about the agency at NASA Watch, shows that all personnel and their property are now subject to random inspection by security officers.
The random searches went into effect on July 30, the day the memo was sent out, and encompass the inspection of "individuals, belongings, and vehicles entering or exiting the premises" of all NASA centers.
Employees at the NASA headquarters in Washington DC, sometimes called "the little White House," received a specific notice tailored to the facility.
"When randomly selected in the West Lobby, individuals will be asked to walk through the metal detector," the memo declares, presumably addressing both incoming and outgoing workers. "In the East Lobby [home to the Earth Information Center], an officer will use a hand-held metal detector."
"If the individual is carrying personal effects, those items will also be searched by the officer," it continues.
Vehicles are likewise subject to random probes.
"When randomly selected, individuals will be notified upon entry to pull over and asked to step out of the vehicle," the memo says. "Once the random search is complete, the individual will return to their vehicle and proceed to the parking garage. The estimated search time will be less than 5 minutes."
That memo comes months after NASA was caught purchasing a license to use Clearview AI — a controversial digital surveillance startup — throughout its facilities.
Random searches aren't necessarily unheard of in industries deemed critical for national development. Private companies like DOW Chemical, Genentech, and Lockheed Martin routinely engage in random employee inspections, often employing x-ray scanners, canines, and even autonomous drones to surveil workers.
While the scrutiny may seem reasonable from a corporate point of view, random employee searches are legally dubious. They've led to lawsuits like Boutin v. Exxon Mobil Corp, in which a contract worker alleged Exxon had fired her in retaliation for complaining about sexual harassment on the job site, using a random inspection as justification.
Some legal groups argue that employee inspections serve to reinforce employer's control over their workers, blurring the lines between personal and private property. Random searches are especially problematic, because the employer has no justification for suspecting the chosen workers of any type of misconduct.
As far as NASA is concerned, the timing of the new security initiative is noteworthy, coming as thousands of senior employees are being asked to pack their bags and leave the agency for good.
That in mind, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how NASA leadership could justify the move. For example, a career Extravehicular Activity Suit Systems Engineer might have few other job prospects outside of NASA, and insider secrets can fetch a pretty penny. (In 2023, a lawsuit filed in federal court accused Boeing of stealing "billions of dollars" worth of trade secrets related to NASA's Artemis program.)
However, there's an easy way to prevent the leak of NASA secrets, as Cowing notes: "treat [your remaining workers] as the valuable individuals that they are — not sheep for you to scare whenever you get a memo from the White House."
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