Originally Posted by
Bart
Agreed. That's why it's referred to the LEO: a person who has the training, authority and jurisdiction to determine if it meets the legal threshold for criminal investigation.
The constitutional problem, though, is that the referral to the LEO
itself is overstepping the bounds of the administrative search. Once you've verified that no prohibited objects exist, you must be
done. The
only exception is if you've encountered evidence of a
crime, not something that just
might be a crime.
As I said earlier, where does this slippery slope end? By your logic, a TSO would be permitted to make an LEO referral because there was an iPod since it's possible that it contains illegally-downloaded material.