Bart

TSA policy is reviewed by its team of lawyers. Every once in a while, even down in the trenches, we'll get a peak at the internal legal debates involved. Often, however, these debates are manifested in the form of directives. For example, we used to "confiscate" prohibited items. One of our directives pointed out that confiscation implied some legal authority to seize items, and TSA has no such authority. So the terms "surrender" and "abandon" were worked into our lexicon because, legally speaking, there is a technical legal difference between someone abandoning a prohibited item at the checkpoint and a screener confiscating one. The assumption (and TSA policy) is that we explain the options for keeping the prohibited item to the passenger (leave the checkpoint and dispose of the item).

Another example is how we handle illegal drugs once they're discovered. TSA has no legal authority to confiscate illegal drugs. However, if during the course of security screening we find illegal drugs, we then notify the airport police who do have the legal authority to handle the matter.

When a passenger becomes uncooperative or disruptive, it's not TSA who decides whether or not that passenger can fly. It's the airlines. If the passenger becomes violent or violates the law, then the airport police will decide the matter by arresting the individual. However, if all the person does is become uncooperative or disruptive, we notify the airline ground security coordinator (GSC) and that individual then makes a decision on behalf of the airlines whether or not the passenger will be allowed to board.

I'm pointing these things out to show you that these are indications of legal review and clarification on what we do and why we do them. I'm not on the staff, so I can't explain all of the intricate details in terms of court precedence used as the basis for these procedures. Not my cup of tea, anyway. However, I'm pretty sure there's some TSA public relations person who could.

I'm amused that you think I may be naive enough to be snookered by some sort of illegality in TSA procedure or wouldn't recognize a conspiracy or violation of law. If you only knew.... But that's another story and if I were to tell it, then you or others would accuse me of either fabricating it or suffering delusions of grandeur. Suffice it to say that I'm quite comfortable with TSA policy and procedure in terms of their legality; I'm not comfortable in terms of their adequacy. In some areas, we overkill and in others, we're not doing enough.