Originally Posted by
RichardKenner
It's more than a consent issue, though, and one of the cases that the government lost in an excusionary hearing (I think it was the one relating to kiddy porn) raised the issue. TSOs are being told "you're only supposed to look for WEI, but if you see something else illegal, you're required to report it". Is this a "distinction without a difference"? Is there really that much of a difference between "look for" and "see"? This is especially true if there's any kind of a "reward" for making the report, including just "a pat on the back".
To me, this is likely to be the larger issue in court than the consent one. Is requiring (or even encouraging) TSOs to report things that they "see" that are not within the bounds to "look for" in the administrative search causing them to effectively "look" for them and hence overstepping the bounds of the administrative search? If so, then consent is irrelevant.
I recognize that it is a fine line between the two, and I can speak for no other person than myself. I have not gone into a bag looking for things past WEI, and only reported things found in the course of doing that. That is what the SOP calls for, and it is what I adhere to. I have not recieved an award for finding contraband, so I have not been placed in a situation where I profited from it. I would also like to see any type of reward program for finding things like contraband removed from the system, although I do not recall personally seeing it happen before.