Originally Posted by
saulblum
Disgusting.
Will one of the TSOs on this board please tell us what rights passengers have once they have cleared the checkpoint? What would happen if the passengers being pulled aside at the gate refused to consent to the patdown? Can the TSO deny them entry onto the plane? If so, under what authority?
Can a TSO just approach anyone in the sterile area of the airport and demand that they spread their arms and feet and be patted down?
I think that if I were traveling myself, and did not absolutely have to be at my destination that day, this is one of these situations where I would have said that enough was enough, and refused to consent to any patdown outside of the checkpoint. Absolutely *%(#*!* disgusting. No other way to describe it.
I can't speak from a position of authority, yet I interpret the current security situation as... if you wish to enter
or remain in the sterile area, you must submit to any and all security protocols defined by any individual TSA employee (
AIT, WTMD, ETD, patdown, dogs, thermal, etc). This will happen at the entry point, and could happen in the terminal, at the gate, or anywhere else that the TSA defines as the sterile area. To refuse any security protocol will result in the refusal of entry, or ejection from the sterile area.
The message is always the same... it's no longer D.Y.W.T.F.T., it's... any passenger that refuses any security protocol will be denied access to the plane. The only way to get out of a random patdown at the gate is to leave the premises (
and presumbly, miss your flight). I'm really suprised they haven't ramped up gate checks, at hubs... just pick the connecting pax, who are connecting... how many people are going to vote with their feet, and leave the sterile area... in a connecting city?