Originally Posted by
jkhuggins
I know this is heresy to post here, but ... Bob has a point.
If TSA wasn't trying to test their own checkpoints, critics would yell at TSA for being asleep at the switch.
Instead, if TSA conducted testing, but only tested their own checkpoints with stuff the SOP was designed to find, critics would yell at TSA for not thinking "outside the box" about the next generation of threats.
So, TSA tests at EWR using a threat that the current SOP isn't designed to detect. Lo and behold, the contraband makes it through the checkpoint. And now everyone yells and screams that TSA failed to detect the item that TSA knew it wouldn't be able to detect.
Look, there are plenty of reasons to criticize TSA, and I do so frequently here. But I think we also ought to play fair.
[Hey, goalie, can you lend me your blocking pads? I think I'm gonna need them ...]
I think I understand your general point, but I'm not sure it applies here.
Current SOP requires accounting for anything that doesn't register as body or clothing (on the scan or to a TSOs probing fingertips) - regardless of what that might be (ostomy bag, piece of gum, hanky, breast expanders, bra underwires, adult diapers).
The pax got a grope. He had an item concealed on his person that was not questioned or detected. It doesn't matter what the item was, whether or not it was real or something the TSO had never encountered before, hence was not trained to detect -
something was there that went unchallenged.
It's not like the TSO said "(pat, pat) Hey, do you have something in your pocket/underwear? What (pat, pat) is this?" and asked for an explanation.