Originally Posted by TakeMeToEZE
I had an odd experience at LAX this week.
I cleared security and went up onto the concourse with about 45 mins to kill before boarding. I was talking on my cell when I heard my name being paged: "UA is paging Mr. TakeMeToEZE -- please report to Gate XX immediately."
Thinking this really odd as I had already been upgraded and had no business with the GAs I went up to the podium to find a TSA guy and couple of police officers with a dog that wanted to speak with me. He told me that my bag had tested positive for explosive residue and therefore they had searched it. He said that while it wasn't uncommon to find some explosive residue as it apparently is found in cosmetics, my bag was "covered in it." He said the residue was coming from an Entertainment book I had in there. (?!) He asked me who gave me the Entertainment book, where it came from, etc.
He was an officious fellow but nonetheless very polite, no complaints. He did, however, say that he needed to take down all my information. He copied down my name, address, phone numbers, drivers license number, etc. because he said that "policy requires we make a report and keep your information on file."
So, is this normal? I'm not an anti-TSA guy. I've never really had a problem with the screeners and usually sympathize with them even though I sometimes agree with several posters here who have had some pretty bad incidents occur out of the ordinary. But did TSA really need to take down all my info and "keep my information on file"?
Thanks for the info.
What
should have happened is that the supervisor should have explained to you why he needed your personal information and how TSA intends to use that information. This is required by the Privacy Act of 1974. Unfortunately, very few supervisors comply with this requirement which applies to all federal government employees whenever they record any personal information.
You will not end up on any watch list.
The Explosives Trace Detection machine looks for characteristics associated with explosives. It is misleading to say that explosive residue is found in cosmetics. Instead, it is more accurate to say that there are common ingredients in both explosives and cosmetics. For example, most skin care lotions contain glycerin or a derivative of glycerin. No big deal until you mix glycerin with nitro which produces a highly unstable and quite explosive compound. The ETD will alarm on glycerin, but that does not necessarily mean that it detected an explosive. It only means that it found a component normally found in explosives. It's up to the supervisor and LEO to figure out whether or not that bottle of Noxema Body Lotion is really skin cream or an explosive.
Whenever an ETD alarms, we have to resolve the alarm. This requires a detailed report that outlines what alarmed and how we determined whether or not it was really an explosive. It also requires your personal information. All basic reports require the who, what, where, when, how and why. Your input is essential to providing a complete and accurate report of what happened and how they determined it was not a threat.
People mistakenly call these false alarms. It is not a false alarm. The technology did what it is designed to do. It requires human judgment to analyze the machine's findings, study the passenger's belongings inside the alarmed bag and assess the passenger via an interview to determine whether or not a threat to commercial aviation exists.
Sounds to me that you either had multiple alarms on your bag or a "hit" that was very high in amplitude. Sounds like they got a canine unit and the dog also alerted on the bag. However, and I'm guessing here, it sounds like there wasn't quite enough indicators there to cross the line between unusual coincidence and bona fide suspicion. If there were, you would not have been allowed on the plane and you would find yourself as the most popular person in Cell Block 8 by now.
They did the right thing by paging you and obtaining your personal information. Where the supervisor screwed up was in failing to explain why he needed your personal information and how TSA intends to use that information. Unfortunately, it's a common procedural violation throughout TSA even though there's been a lot of training emphasis on following the Privacy Act policy.
Hope this clarifies things up for you.