TSA raising aviation security baseline

[PKR]

Flying back from Georgia a few years ago on a work trip I had my Bell & Howell 16mm camera in my carry on, I shot about 4 reels of film and the 5th was about half exposed and still in the camera. Some TSA goon wanted me to open in, I flatly told her no, and if she had a problem with that to call her supervisor and the airport police.

What she didn't know was that I was travelling with a good friend of mine who happened to be (at the time) a high ranking official in a government agency, some harsh words words were said at the TSA and airport cops and we were on our way.

I miss those days 🙁

A gov't. Security guy I know traveled home from his assignment to be with his girlfriend over Christmas. I saw him briefly between the local airport and his girlfriend's home. He told me he was taken aside at the outgoing airport and roughly strip searched as the TSA agents had found a throwing star (a martial arts weapon) in his carry on luggage. He said he was treated very badly and unprofessionally. I think they left him naked in a room for a time. A senior agent came in the room to examine his luggage in his presence while he was restrained. The throwing star they produced was his badge mounted in his agency ID wallet. He missed his plane and had to wait for a later flight. He said his service weapon was in his checked luggage, and didn't know what would have happened if they'd found it.

I don't know what happened after Christmas but, he was pretty angry about the incident.

 

[David Murphy]

Apparently one of the triggers for enhanced screening (a very aggressive pat-down), is anything that causes the TSA to hand-check your carry-on luggage (source: ACLU, which tries to track events with the TSA). I was recently subjected to such a screening, a very aggressive body search at Love Field in Dallas, which before this thread appeared I was working hard to forget! I have read that if I had refused, I would have been arrested and forcibly cavity searched, so it's a damn good thing I consented!

What triggered this search in my case was the fact that I had some non-prescription medicine that was not in a commercially labeled container. This really freaked them out - I cannot make this up! I also had a film camera and film in my backpack that they did not say a word about that. They also bitched at me, rather aggressively, about my laptop - it was removed and placed in a bin, but there were some other items in the bin with it - apparently a grievous offense. After they seemingly completed a check of my laptop, the agent then refused to say if she had finished her search and if I could take it with me (I'm not making this up). They were really just exuding anger at passengers, I've never quite seen anything like it to tell the truth, and I've traveled to many countries and have a rather thick skin for this stuff.

Many others were being subjected to the enhanced screening as well. My general impression among the TSA was that they were fearful - very fearful. My guess is that the intelligence community knows some pretty bad stuff that they are not really revealing to us and that may have them institutionally on edge as never before.

The real problem with the TSA is that the rules seem to constantly change, and it is not easy for the casual traveler to keep up. In the early days they seemed to understand that we were not able to stay abreast of all of this, but now there is sort of a blame-the-passenger attitude. It is really the natural evolution of any large statetist bureaucracy holding power over life-and-limb I'm afraid.

By the way, I once liked to fly on airlines (I am a general aviation pilot myself), I fully understand the compelling need for aviation security, but more than ever now I try to avoid flying commercial!