ATSAP launched in 2008 as a collaborative effort between NATCA and the FAA and was fully implemented in 2010. ATSAP enables air traffic controllers to voluntarily identify and report safety and operational concerns. ATSAP is non-punitive and the data collected is shared between aviation stakeholders through the Confidential Information Share Program (CISP) and the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS). By providing a more complete representation of National Airspace System (NAS) operations, NATCA, the FAA, and participating airlines can more accurately identify potential hazards and develop more robust mitigation strategies.
I started in 2008 and remember when we got our first ATSAP briefings very soon after I arrived at my facility. At that time, some of the old-timers were calling it a "get out of jail free card" since they had worked under the old system where if you had a few deals you were just done, I guess. This was most emphasized by a guy who started in like 1983 and was the fattest, laziest controller we had. He knew people referred to him as lazy but he insisted he was not lazy but an "efficiency expert".
Anyway, I didn't and still don't view ATSAP as a get out of jail free card. However, a program like that is almost always going to elicit that type of response and subsequent behavior from a number of controllers. It has the potential to identify and fix some problems, but it enables other problems as well, like making people "not afraid to have deals".