Originally Posted by FliesWay2Much
Why did you not report what you suspected were bootleg DVDs?
Because:
Originally Posted by FliesWay2Much
Screeners have very little judgment when it comes to screening. Why do you have all sorts of latitude when you happen to find "something?"
As you just pointed out, we work within the boundaries of our SOP. There's nothing within it that calls for us to notify authorities of pirated movies or pirated software. By the same token, if I hypothetically stumbled across some documents in checked baggage that outlines some corporation's plan for circumventing government safety regulations via illicit means, I would do the very same thing I do for pirated DVDs: finish screening the bag, and send it on its way.
As so many have pointed out: it's not my business.
Originally Posted by FliesWay2Much
Either you participate in the warrantless dragnet or you don't. [...] You can't have it both ways.
Have you ever stopped to consider that it's
not exactly the big warrantless dragnet that it's made out to be? There's actually very little outside of the scope of weapons, explosives, and incendiaries that we are supposed to report to the authorities (especially in the scope of working in checked baggage screening). Unpaid parking tickets aren't it. Pirated DVDs aren't it.
It basically boils down to drugs, drug paraphernalia, and large sums of cash.
There are other things that we report to law enforcement authorities, of course, but they are things that
do fall within the scope of weapons, explosives, and incendiaries. Such as an undeclared firearm, for example.