<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by PW1P:
I have a question regarding the secondary screening procedures. The other day I was going from SFO domestic to the international section, and passed thru the security there. I took my laptop out, had nothing in my pockets etc. I had sneakers on. I put everything on the conveyor and stepped thru the m.detector. No beep. I was then asked to sit on the chair and my shoes were run over with the wand. Then I had to stand on the feet markings and I was wanded. Two dangerous rivets and a button fly were discovered on my 501's. I was then released to watch my laptop get swabbed. What I would like to know is why did I get secondary search when I had already passed thru the frikken detector without setting it off? Is there a procedure for this unbelievable waste of resources? Tho I guess with probably 20 TSA agents and just me going thru one side they wanted to do something useful.
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It's called "continuous screening" and is standard operating procedure for TSA. It happens, as stated, continuously so even during busy times if no alarms are set off these procedures occur. This is done so that those who might be scouring the airports for any sort of patterns in the screening process cannot establish one.