Originally Posted by
Section 107
I can't say definitively that non-TSA teams will not be working be working at or near TSA checkpoints - currency detection teams and other teams could certainly be working checkpoints or other parts of the sterile area.
As to your question about the 4th Amend: I personally do not see how such a search would be permissible.
However, I can easily envision a scenario where a drug detection dog alerts while a person is walking by so the handler notifies a second officer who makes contact with the passenger and during the course of that interaction the second officer, based on his experience and training, develops a reasonable suspicion the person is violating a law due to the person's demeanor and responses to questions. The interaction then escalates to an investigative stop. During the investigation, the second officer asks if the person would mind if a dog inspects his luggage/person. If the person says yes, the dog alerts again officially and its off to the races. If pax says no, then the officer becomes more suspicious and increases the intensity of the investigative stop until he can reasonable justify a search of the person (and every decent cop can do this - its what they are trained to do; its their bread and butter).
I share your concerns.
I was thinking about the questions I asked and then questioned my position on some similar issues. Say an ED dog is walking the halls of an airport and alerts. I personally would want an investigation started then I ask is this any different than alerting on drugs and would it be a permissible search. In my mind I am less concerned about drugs because for the most part don't endanger an aircraft I might be on. Yet I would support an effort to interdict explosives. To me the situations are different.
I see no purpose of having currency detection dogs in an airport, at least not at TSA checkpoints. Cash in and of itself is legal in any amount. Also is not a safety of flight concern no matter why a person might have it. Airports cannot be turned into police dragnets in an effort to avoid legal 4th amendment searches or just good old fashioned police work. I do waiver on that point if the purpose is strictly limited to Safety of Flight searches and investigations.
I find it distressing that a drug dog handler that had a suspicion would alert another officer in order to engage a person. As you describe it, the person is going to be searched one way or the other and it doesn't matter what the person says or does. That goes to the heart of circumventing legal searches to my way of thinking. Is that really the country we want to live in?
I really think that we as a nation should take a step back and really consider just where we are headed as a country. I don't like what I see and feel that my career military service has been wasted on protecting the freedoms that many Americans just don't appreciate. As it was stated many years ago; Divided We Fall!