Originally Posted by
Enigma368
I often travel with a fairly big plastic wallet/card holder in my carry on. I know it is unusual but I use it to store a variety of cards than are useful when travelling. This ranges from my membership cards with different hotel chains and car rental companies, to my health insurance cards, priority passes, and oyster/octopus cards etc. I also use it store my credit cards that I am not actively using, I am a moderate card churner and have about 15-20 different credit and debit cards and it is just easiest for me to store the ones I am not actually using in there in case I need them. (Although many of them I have cancelled and I just haven't cleaned it out.) I also keep some of my other half's credit and membership cards in there for him.
My bag was pulled aside as DEN today for additional screening and they took out this wallet. The TSA agent leafed through it for a while. She called over her supervisor. She told her supervisor that there were cards in there under two different names. The supervisor and her spent some leafing through all of the cards and whispering to each other and then asked me for my ID. I gave my ID and then she asked if these cards were all mine. I said that most of them were mine but some belonged to my other half and I pointed at him(he was travelling with me). She asked his name and then took another 10-15 seconds leafing through them and -almost reluctantly - said I was good to go and gave me back my ID.
I as curious and so I asked why this wallet was being investigated and the supervisor replied that when they can't determine what something is in the x-ray they have to investigate.
TLDR; I have no problem them investigating an unrecognizable object but I don't understand why the TSA would spend so long rifling through a personal item which they would immediately see posed no security risk. They clearly were suspicious about why I had so many credit cards and in two different names but is that the TSA's job? I guess they could have been wondering if I was travelling under a false identity, but my giving my ID should have resolved the matter immediately. Basically it just felt like they were being nosey.
It probably didn't help that DEN was dead and they all seemed really bored. Anyway my question is: Can TSA search personal items that pose no security risk? Do they also have a duty to investigate potentially suspicious items not related to flight/airport security?
They do this sort of thing; evidently they still think they're detectives. By concentrating on this sort of thing and on liquids they focus on something they can do, rather than:
1) devote genuine effort to finding guns, explosives, or other things that might endanger an aircraft
2) practice sufficient attention to hygiene and proper use of protective gear and spacing that they won't constitute an infection vector
On the spot like that, especially if you're not experienced in dealing with their nonsense, I'd do what you did, just answer their foolish and nosy questions as briefly as possible and try to get through quickly. They I'd complain later.
The ID checker's job is totally irrelevant to anything but that doesn't keep them from being officious even while failing to know the rules. Two times at JFK I got in arguments because the ID checker didn't know what a NEXUS card was and refused to look at the list of IDs, instead insisting on me presenting my driving license. One time there were 4 people, including a supervisor. (Another time, at BDL, I presented my NEXUS card, and the checker didn't know what it was but looked it up).
Another time I departed from JFK terminal 1 and presented my driving license because I couldn't get to my NEXUS card without holding up the line. The checker kept wanting to see my passport and I kept asking why because I know you don't have to show your passport to the TSA, international terminal or not. She didn't tell me why she wanted to see it, just kept asking for it, finally called for a supervisor. He called somebody on the radio, then took my driving license, looked at it, scribbled on my boarding pass, and sent me onward.
Right now I would just do what they want and complain later. You do NOT want to extend contact with them; you do NOT want to be in a position where your health is dependent on their proper use of masks, gloves, etc., one second longer than necessary.
Originally Posted by
garykung
Yes.
Except FAM, TSA are not LEOs. So they do not exactly have any investigative authority. However, when it looks suspicious, they can refer to proper authority.
The real question is - would you rather talk to a TSO or an actual LEO, either local or federal, after detention?
Having a lot of cards has nothing to do with aviation security. The TSA is not the Safeway Club Card police.
There is nothing about a sleeve full of cards that is suspicious. Falsely saying something is suspicious does not give the ID checker the right to paw through someone's belongings with no reason.
Really, everybody should raise an uproar (afterwards) whenever they experience, or learn about, any action that extends the interaction for no reason because it increases the chance of disease transmission.