Exec_Plat

Absolutely agree.

People in positions of authority lie in much more substantial ways, every day.

OP must be white, to have been so shocked and outraged by this. Just saying.

Id be annoyed and know you have utterly no recourse. Unless your cell phone was recording the interaction....

lhrsfo

The problem with giving people power is that they tend to abuse it. Having said that, nowadays there are large numbers of jerks who try to bait those with power, who then react to that baiting, sometimes with lies. Reprehensible but also understandable. I have no idea whether the OP was trying to bait this person, or whether the OP simply does not know the basic rules of airport security, which are that if the alarm goes off (either for cause or randomly) you then have a pat down, but it does sound as though the officer thought she was being baited.

Whom are you requesting to do this? Perhaps you should employ an army of lawyers and senior judges to carry out a full investigation.

Gigantor

Actually, I have been contacted by the BHX security staff and they are taking my allegations very seriously. They have launched and investigation and I have been contacted for further discussion.

So, apparently you are unaware of the rights of the traveller.

G

mfkne

What specifically are they investigating? Why a second attempt was offered or why the person changed the story half way?

WillCAD

G, those of us who frequent the TS&S board are completely aware of the rights of the traveler. In fact, we tend to be far more aware of those rights than the average traveler.

However, we are also well aware of the many situations in which TSA, CTSA, and other government agencies have violated the rights of the traveler without any consequence, no matter how much complaining is done. Even federal lawsuits have failed to make any impression on TSA in regards to several key issues. I'm far less aware of the situation in the UK, but I get the impression from the stories I've read on FlyerTalk that the UK government is even less flexible than the US government on such matters.

In re-reading your original post, I am struck by the language, as lhrsfo was. It sounded like you were requesting an investigation here on FlyerTalk, which means you may not understand what FlyerTalk actually is.

FlyerTalk is a privately-owned message board which provides frequent fliers a place to talk with each other and share their knowledge and experience. FlyerTalk is not operated by any government agency. FlyerTalk has no affiliation with any government. FlyerTalk is not an advocacy group, or a watchdog group, or a non-profit organization.

FlyeTalk is more like a privately-owned fan club, full of frequent fliers. The members here are flyers - they are passengers. A few government and airline employees are members of FlyerTalk, but they are here on their own time, not in any official capacity, not officially representing their employers.

In short, FlyerTalk is not any sort of official line of communication to any government agency, nor is it an official line of communication to any airport operating authority, police agency, airline, or travel vendor.

We all sympathize with you over your incident, but aside from offering condolences and some friendly advice on how to proceed (and maybe avoid such incidents in the future), there is nothing that the FlyerTalk membership can do to help you.

I wish you luck in your discussions with BHX security, but I am a pretty cynical person, and my belief is that they will offer you great sympathy, make suggestions on how you can change your travel habits in the future to avoid such unpleasantness, and try to sound like they are completely on your side - but they will make no promises, no guarantees, and nothing of substance will come of the meeting. You might come away feeling happier than you went in, but all you'll come away with is a few vague assurances that they will contact you with the results of their investigation within the next few weeks. And nothing solid will come of it - no rule changes, no discipline of the screeners involved, changes in procedure. All you'll get is a phone call or email now and them telling you that the person you met with has been meeting with X and Y and Z and discussions are ongoing, but the results of those discussions will ultimately be nothing.

That's just a guess, of course. I could be wrong.

Exec_Plat

I'll disagree with this.

Gigantor

In fact, I posted an abridged copy of the letter that I sent to BHX.
BHX has contacted me last week and have launched a full investigation.

I will be contacted later today, by phone, for an interview.

ou81two

Bahahaha, that's the best post I've seen all year. Yes, you make a long post on the internet and no doubt interpol and various agencies in Europe will drop what they're doing and get right on the case. That's how the internet works.

Gigantor

What I posted was an extract from the letter sent to BHX.
I do not expect anything to happen on this forum.

I posted to this forum to inform the other members.

BHX has, in fact, launched an investigation.

G

petaluma1

What, exactly, is your problem? You have bashed posters in 7 consecutive threads. Do you ever travel by air?

Boggie Dog

Team TSA?

petaluma1

That thought occurred to me also.

cottonmather0

More power to you if you want to officially complain - and I know you are in the UK, so maybe it will work differently there - but all in all in the U.S., unless you have hard evidence that a specific crime and/or violation of protocol occurred, your complaint will most likely be ignored or, if you are lucky, you'll get a form letter in the mail saying, "Thanks for having an opinion, but we're keeping you safe. Have a good day."

Agents simply going on power trips and/or making up rules as they go along isn't even worth taking the time to complain and they know it. The problem is structural and can only be addressed at the very highest levels of government, which, like most government programs, care very little about your piddling little business trip to Des Moines being disturbed. Not when TSA is unionized and most Americans don't fly regularly anyway and are perpetually scared of Muslims under the bed and also easily buy into rhetiric about the "1%" and associate frequent air travel with that demographic . Your one vote is miniscule compared to the millions in the other column.

Whenever I am offered a comment card, I just refuse it or throw it in the trash. All it's there for is to make you feel better and calm down while you're filling it out. They don't care.

Gigantor

I was contacted (telephone) by BHX Airport Authority this week to inform me of the status of the current investigation.
I told them that they must speak with the two West Midland police officers who were present when the supervisor repeated her mistruths.

I am very pleased that BHX is taking this seriously.
I am not based in the UK... I am Swiss.

tai4de2

Was this encounter taking place via email, in rich-text or html format?

Or did you perhaps mean "bald-faced" liar?

[couldn't resist]