Originally Posted by
TSORon
A guess only, but I get the feeling you had an encounter with a Behavior Detection Officer (BDO). Their job is in particular to observe passengers for behaviors that might signal a threat to an aircraft. Asking questions and providing advise enhances the officers ability to observe actions and reactions, and therefore assists them in their job. Being nice while doing so also helps them by not presenting a threatening presence when talking with the passengers.
Just a guess mind you, but it sounds about right to me.
It sounds right to me, too.
Question: What happens if I'm preoccupied or simply not interested in engaging in conversation with a TSO who, like you, I suspect is a BDO? As we both have agreed, a TSO can ask anything he or she wants. However, I am not aware of any enforceable law that requires I respond. I don't know your opinion of the the BDO program, but mine is that it's utterly ridiculous -- I've explained why in other threads and won't go into it again here. My inclination when a state actor asks me something which he has no business either asking or knowing the answer to is to say, more or less politely (depending on the question, the context, and how it's asked), "None of your business."
What happens then?