FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - OT? Courthouse security

Aug 12, 2012 | 5:43 pm

#32

TWA884

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Quote:

Originally Posted by cbn42

Quote:

Originally Posted by TWA884

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbn42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pup

Thanks to everyone for the replies. All very interesting!

Out of curiosity--and let's say it was hypothetically under California law--how would that go, in practice? Let's say that rather than answering "no" and showing the pocket pressed flat, I just said, in a calm voice, "I decline to answer."

How would a typical security guard be trained to respond? Where would it go from there? I'm guessing it wouldn't be as simple as, "Okay, just thought I'd ask, but you don't have to answer. Have a nice day."

For what it's worth, the funny thing is that I'd left my metal-frame glasses in my shirt pocket the whole time, because I completely forgot they were there, and neither I nor the guard noticed them. Plus my wife realized afterwards that she had an 8" metal nailfile in the bottom of her purse that would have looked just like a dagger on X-ray and might have been considered dangerous on search, which they didn't notice, but they caught her bottle of Coke! (She thought no food and drink just meant no eating or drinking, not a ban on sealed food inside a purse, so she wasn't deliberately trying to sneak it in.)

Since this is probably not a very common incident, I highly doubt that security guards would have received any specific training on this. My guess is that you could probably get into the building without answering this question, if you were willing to escalate the matter to a supervisor a level or two higher and stand your ground and wait while they tried to consult their legal counsel and figure out how to handle the situation.

In other words, it would be exactly like refusing to answer questions at customs. They will give you a hard time, call in a few supervisors, try to wear you down by making you wait, but eventually let you through.

Wrong.

This is a common occurrence. I have seen it happen many times. The screeners and the deputies overseeing them are well trained to handle such situations.

Sometimes when people forget items in their pockets, they are asked to completely empty their pockets, place all items through the x-ray machine and walk through the metal detector again. At other times, they will be wanded with a hand held metal detector and asked to show the object. The individual will not be allowed to enter the building without the object either being shown or x-rayed.

Concerning the coke bottle and the nail file hypothetical, as I wrote in my earlier post, glass bottles and objects such as metal nail files are not permitted to be brought into most Los Angeles County courthouses.

That's not the occurrence we were talking about. Go back and read the original post, and compare it to the occurrence you described in your post.

I beg to differ.

Please review the progression of the discussion.

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