Originally Posted by
Aussienarelle
I was travelling out of SAN today and they were using the dogs . Makes sense to me: close to the border, cocaine bust earlier this week and Spring Break. However, then everyone is now TSA-pre. But they have no idea what to do and the lie backs up.
What is the point of paying for TSA-pre when everyone gets it for free, and more importantly it makes the lines much longer for TSA-pre. It is a bit of a first world problem, and I know I sound like a DYKWIA but it was extremely frustrating.
I actually pay for GE but as a green card holder it only works 50% of the time. May not bother renewing my GE (and associated TSA pre).
Sniffer dogs cannot be trained to sniff for both drugs and explosives. They sniff for one or the other.
Sniffer dogs used by TSA in checkpoint queues are explosives detectors, not drug detectors.
If they are drug sniffers, looking for cocaine, then they are breaking the law, since searching mass numbers of people for drugs in a public place without warrant, probable cause, or articulable suspicion is clearly outside of the limited 4th Amendment exception granted for airport security screening, which holds that a search is Constitutional if
"(1) it is no more extensive or intensive than necessary, in light of current technology, to detect weapons or explosives; (2) it is confined in good faith to that purpose; and (3) passengers may avoid the search by electing not to fly."
I've only had one experience with the PoochCheck, but it was a positive one. The dog and handler were in a roped-off penalty box in the center of the checkpoint queue, downstream of the TDC. The queue wrapped around the box, and the dog and it got a good sniff of everyone from close range as they rounded three sides of the box and continued on. Multiple ETD machines (I believe four or five of them) were set up on the outside edge of the queue, and random people were getting their hands swabbed and tested as they passed by. After that, the queue split into individual lanes, and screening used the PreCheck methodology - WTMD, x-ray of bags, shoes on, belts on, WBI used only for those who alarmed the WTMD. The queue in that case was moving so fast that the ETD operators had trouble running their tests before the tested pax had passed beyond their area into the split.
I would be perfectly okay with making this setup the official standard throughout the country. After a couple of weeks, there would be no confusion - everybody would know what to do and there would be no backups.
Of course, this would invalidate the need for the costly PreCheck program and stymie its real purpose - the mass collection of personal information from travelers, at bloated government expense.