Originally Posted by studentff
It seems you're saying it's a requirement (i.e., part of the SOP) that you report someone carrying a large amount of cash to "someone else" (be it within TSA or a LEO). Not an option or up to screener judgment, but a requirement. Correct?
Originally Posted by tsadude1
It's a requirement for us to report it and a requirement for someone else to investigate.
I can confirm that. It's happened twice at Huntsville, one of them where I personally found it (dude had, like, $14,000 in just, like,
wads of $100s in his pockets) during a pat-down. I reported it to the Supervisor, Supervisor called Customs. Customs got there, asked him a few questions, and let him go after determining that he wasn't traveling overseas (which was, for some reason, something we were
very specifically not allowed to inquire about ourselves; probably has something to do with legal liability and law enforcement procedures). The whole shebang took about ten minutes, IIRC, with nine of it being Customs' travel time.
Again, carrying 10K+ in cash domestically isn't illegal. I wouldn't call it
wise necessarily, but there's nothing illegal about it.
Originally Posted by ND Sol
If it is a requirement to report, then it calls more into question the validity of the administrative search.
Our training coordinator here at Huntsville put it very eloquently, I think, when it comes to the cash thing and reporting any drugs/drug paraphernalia found during the searches: "If you're driving down the road and you happen to see a car under a bridge, you stop and see if they need help. You're not driving down the road
looking for cars under bridges, though."