WillCAD

Well, let's see...

Look at people's behavior. Each behavior is an indicator of intent. Know which behaviors mean "deception", and you can spot deception. Isn't that the theory?

So, if you know which behaviors indicate "deception", why is it that you completely - perhaps willfully - ignore such behaviors in airport vendors and TSA employees, and only make LEO referrals on travelers?

Could it be perhaps that the entire concept is a giant steaming fragrant pile of horse manure? That the behaviors which BDOs are taught mean "deception" actually DO NOT mean "deception" and what they're really doing is calling the cops on random people based on their own personal prejudices and preconceptions?

Refresh my memory again - according to the GAO report, how much better than random chance is the BDO program? I'm thinking it was 0.0%, but I could be wrong. It might be 0.00%, or even 0.000%. Triple digits would be an impressive success rate.

FliesWay2Much

I'll do you one better. I don't need the checklist nor do I actually have to observe a TSA employee to detect deception. I have the ability to detect TSA deceptive behavior just by reading what they write! I have a 100% success rate.

RatherBeOnATrain

An update:
Source:
WXIA-TV: Ex-TSA officer fakes cancer to receive paid leave
11:59 a.m. EDT May 11, 2015

chollie

I wish TSA was as interested in prosecuting TSOs who steal from pax, instead of from each other.

I don't believe he should be charged with theft of government funds - not in relation to the time he got from fellow employees. They gave it voluntarily - let them encounter the same unfriendly process pax do when TSOs steal from them. I feel for them, but I also feel for pax who have their belongings stolen or damaged with no recourse.

The only 'government funds' he may have misused are his own sick leave, and any payback/punishment should be between him and the government. His fellow employees can take him to court if they want their $ back.

gsoltso

I am not going to say that something like this could *never* happen at GSO - that would be unrealistic based upon human nature. I have no reason to believe that it would happen based upon my experiences here and the way I have seen my co-workers engage passengers on a regular basis.

The TSA website has consistently produced a result about nitro pills indicating that they are allowed - I have included the link that gives you the green go indicator before, several times. As for your interaction with other TSA employees that are not up to speed on the SOP and create a situation where you feel that you are unable to take the nitro with you - I apologize, they are wrong and you should never find yourself in a situation where it is not allowed. If it happens again, then I certainly hope that you will file complaints until you get satisfaction.

I can tell you right here, right now, if you carried nitro pills with you into my checkpoint, it would recieve nothing more than a cursory glance by myself to insure it was consistent with the hundreds of other nitro bottles I have seen here over the years. Other folks that follow the SOP would do the same - anyone that does anything other than a cursory inspection (to make certain it is a little pill bottle with pills in it), is wrong. I cant say it any plainer than that.

chollie

No, the website does not say that medical nitro is permitted.

Someone added 'nitro' to a list of recognized words, but the response addressed medical liquids only. Hint: nitro pills are not liquid, hence the liquid rules do not apply. The response also added the usual disclaimer: nothing on the website is binding at the checkpoint and the screener(s) make the final decision (as they did when they took my pills).

The pills contain a prohibited substance, not unlike the peroxide in Clearcare contact solution. It is the only contact solution I am aware of that is banned in any quantity - because of a single ingredient.

For the hundredth time, my pills were confiscated under the 'banned substances' rules - the same rules that prohibit me from flying with a small vial of gunpowder or a firecracker.

With all due respect, I have your word on an IBB vs. the in-person words of multiple TSOs, LTSOs, STSO and suits. Actions speak much louder than anonymous words on the internet.

If it's such a non-issue, why is Blogger Bob reluctant to address it? You know, big laughs all around, big misunderstanding, TSOs saw nitro pills and instead of handling them like any bottle of pills they treated them like live mini-bombs?

I did file a 'complaint' at the time. It only happened one time - the experience was so unsettling, the threats so scary, that I haven't dared to carry my pills since.

Needless to say, I never received a response to my concerns.

I do think it's interesting that you have seen 'hundreds' of these pill bottles. You must do a lot of very thorough bag searches at GSO - taking pill bottles out and reading labels. I only had it happen one time (taking the contents out of each baggie and reading labels, opening bottles, etc.)

Boggie Dog

GSOLTSO is supposedly a BDO and most likely not searching bags of any kind.

It is clear that the TSA website DOES NOT say nitro pills are permitted. It doesn't state one way or the other. The undefined green bar has no meaning and if it did the verbage is about LGA's in excess of 3.4 ounces.

And as you have learned a complaint to TSA is very unlikely to result in any action. TSA farms out the complaint process to contractors. That's how interested TSA is in your complaint, not at all!

Perhaps you could take an empty nitro vial with you to test TSA's reaction to carrying this medicine.

chollie

Well, they certainly do a lot more in-depth bag searching at GSO than I have experienced or witnessed at other airports if gsoltso himself has conducted or witnessed so many bag searches that involved removing individual items like pill bottles and reading the labels. (He didn't mention if he also opens the bottles). I've had bag searches before, but that was the only one that was that detailed - which is why they found my pills, inside their double bottle inside my toiletry kit inside my rollaboard.

Absent a post from Blogger Bob, I am not going to risk taking the pills ever again. I was warned, accused of trying to 'willfully' get contraband past the checkpoint, told I was lucky to fly that day, let alone ever again, ID and BP copied, report made, bla-bla. I got the message loud and clear.

gsoltso, I'm not sure what you think will happen if I take the chance, carry my pills, get challenged and show the TSO the website entry you are talking about.

Any reasonably intelligent TSO will say the same thing I'm saying: "This entry applies to medical liquids. Your pills are not liquid. What does this have to do with anything?"

Boggie Dog

That warning was nothing more than an act of intimidation used to keep you from exercising your rights and could in and of itself been an illegal act by those TSA employees.

You have every right to carry your legally presribed medications with you when you travel. TSA does not have the authority to interfere in your medical treatment.

Stand up for yourself and if TSA takes your medicine then lawyer up and take the fight to them!

WillCAD

FYI Guys: This entry in the TSA blog from September 2014 states categorically and unambiguously that nitro pills and sprays are permitted and have never been prohibited.

http://blog.tsa.gov/2014/09/tsa-trav...ling-with.html

Of course, a TSO who wants to be a douche can easily pull out the old "the web site is out of date" card. Hard to argue with a douche. But at least you have the blog.

chollie

OK, I missed that. Entering any version of nitro in 'can I take it' just diverts to the rules about medical liquids.

Too bad the blogger couldn't post without including a gratuitous lie: nitro in pill form most certainly has been prohibited - at least one other pax has posted about it. Perhaps the SOP has become so consistently inconsistent that HQ no longer knows what actually happens at checkpoints.

petaluma1

How many people are going to hunt through the Blog for the statement that you found? Further, what Bob did not write on the blog, however, is this from the TSA website, "Can I bring my..." section:

pontifex

I've had multiple experiences when TSA workers flat-out refused to give me a complaint form, or lied about the existence of complaint forms while holding them. When I posted about one of these experiences at the TSA blog, you got huffy and refused to address my issue because I used the wrong term to refer to the TSA employee I dealt with (I know you like to call yourselves "officers" for some reason but the person who lied to me in this case was not wearing a phony cop uniform or a cheap tin badge so it seemed even less appropriate than usual). Your complaint process, like so much of what your agency does, is a pathetic farce.

Boggie Dog

With TSA words vs actions are the give away. DHS talkers have plenty of words but rarely any admission or ownership of problems. The recent post by Carraway on the TSA Blog is a fine example. No suggestion that TSA may have some problems, just passengers that are disgruntled or lacking understanding.

I suggest that problems internal to TSA are much worse than we can even imagine.

chollie

Cheer up, they don't make it any easier to submit positive feedback.

I've posted elsewhere, but I asked once for a form to praise (yes, praise!) a good TSO. I got bumped to two different people, no forms at checkpoint, I pointed out the employee, explained my feedback, finally got the form, asked for the employee's name or badge number....and was told to fill the form in, leave the name blank, and the TSO I was talking to would (allegedly) fill in the name and submit the form later.

By that time, I had wasted nearly 30 minutes, no more time to spare, so I left. No point in submitting the info later without the employee's name.

Way to go, TSA. I have zero respect for any organization that makes it next to impossible to provide documented positive feedback about one of their employees.