TSA Has Tabs on Rowdy Travelers

Montreal, PQ, Canada - November 15, 2015: Airline passengers waiting in line to pass through airport security at Pierre Eliott Trudeau airport

Following a surge in assaults on staff, it has been revealed that the Transportation Security Administration is keeping track of unruly passengers via a “95 List.” Lawmakers have expressed their concern over the list, but the TSA’s Darby LaJoye says that it is compiled as a preventative measure.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is keeping tabs on unruly passengers, CBS News reports. The administration has begun to track rowdy travelers following a surge in assaults on staff at checkpoints. The outlet reports that the identities of passengers who are involved in an assault on TSA staff are recorded onto a log referred to as a “95 list.”

Explaining the criteria that would see a passenger’s name added to the list, Darby LaJoye, the TSA’s executive assistant administrator for security operations told the outlet, “In most cases this is someone where there was assaultive behavior or someone tried to circumvent security screening.”

Some lawmakers, however, are wary of the impact that this kind of list might have on the rights of individual passengers. Offering his comments last Thursday during a House Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing, Representative Watson Coleman, D-N.J., said, “I am concerned about the civil liberty implications of such a list.”

Representative Bill Keating, D-Mass., spoke to voice his concern over the fact that travelers may not be explicitly aware of the fact that they have been added to this log. “If you’re going to, you know, affect behavior, it would be great that they knew they were on the list, and it would be great if they’re on the list that they have a way to appeal that,” he said.

The existence of the list itself was initially revealed by the New York Times, however, the outlet reports that “the agency [TSA] says it posted a Privacy Impact Statement on DHS.gov in July, asking for public comments. TSA says it received no comments.”

While passengers’ names are infrequently added to the list, speaking before lawmakers, LaJoye explained that the agency holds a review process, a procedure that sees names scrubbed from the list.

In a statement quoted by the outlet, the administration said that it remains, “committed to its people and wants to ensure there are safeguards in place to protect Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) and others from any individual who has previously exhibited disruptive or assaultive behavior at a screening checkpoint and is scheduled to fly.”

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