first off, welcome to flyertalk and thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts, experiences, comments, etc as it's always good to have views "from the other side" ^ but also be careful as "big brother is out there"
Originally Posted by
spotnik
Originally Posted by
etch5895
Welcome. I'll keep it civil.
Can you legally keep someone from flying if they refuse to engage you in conversation, or do you just delay them?
Thank you.
Unfortunately, your question is kind of a complicated issue. You do not, to my knowledge, have to talk to any TSA employee. This includes BDOs. You might, however, be able to decrease the length of your delay by engaging in conversation. There are also numerous stories on this forum about rouge TSO/BDO who decide to harass people for "failing to cooperate." If you run into one of them, all bets are off.
actually, imho, it's not that complicated but rather black and white. if i refuse or otherwise don't want to engage in a conversation with a bdo, that is my right and according t
o the tsa's own civil rights policy the tsa does not have the right to "harass" or otherwise delay me (bullet points 3, 4 & 5). i can simply say something like "i prefer not to speak with you", "i prefer not to speak with a bdo" or if i'm cranky, "please spot someone else"
and that's it-no detention as the tsa does not have that authority, no secondary screening, no nothing as anything other than letting me go on my way is harassment and retaliatory. so with that, what is the redress procedure (other than calling or e-mailing the tsa contact center)? if i ask for the bdo's name, badge and i/d number, what happens if the bdo refuses?