You should obtain a copy of the police report and verify it's accuracy. If the HPD officers are anything like the PG County Maryland & UMD officers, there is a significant possibility that the police report was falsified. If it's truthful, you will have the names of the TSA screeners. If you choose to pursue legal action, I'd be tempted to name them personally as defendants - even if they are protected by the Government, you will still extract a cost on them in court.

Unfortunatly, as you have documented, America is no longer the land of the free, but is quickly becoming the land of the oppressed.

Another thing we agree on...although for me, the TSA is public enemy #1, as they represent a clear and present danger to aviation security, not to mention our liberties. Cope are either tied, or a close second.

There were plenty of people in the intelligence and counterterrorism communities who were very concerned about those individuals -- long before they showed up at airports. There was a healthy dose of inaction at the agencies who could have done something about it.

Sloppy police work is simply no excuse for the garbage going on in the name of "security" at airports, train stations, ferry boats, and bus terminals.

Typical TSA response. They have no clue about policy and procedure and are there just to waste everyone's time.

Though, in a way, that makes it worse. It was pure punishment. Not for any LE purpose, legal/justified or not....

This kind of BS is why I detest law enforcement. HPD1 will with almost total certainty suffer no consequences for these incorrect actions, and his supervisors, unions, and cop buddies all over the country will defend him endlessly.

What do you think would have happened if you had just said no to the state-ID or SSN request? Isn't it illegal under some federal law for them to ask for your SSN without just cause?

Did anything bad happen to her or her flight? This is info I'm not sure I would have been comfortable giving, as it involved her in your exercise (which I appreciate) without her consent (unless she and you had an understanding).

Is this legal? If not, why are you not going after HPD for this?

Is this legal at all? All of the advice I have seen to photographers is to NEVER let them confiscate you equipment and especially film or flash cards. If not, why are you not going after them for it?

Thank you for doing what you did. The only way to stop this BS is to document it, determine what occurs, and then push back when it is realistic to do so.

As much as I hate TSA, it doesn't seem that they did anything blatantly illegal as they are as welcome to follow you around in the airport as you are them. But the LEOs were pigs (and I use that term intentionally and specifically to refer to those LEOs that did this) who should be terminated, stripped of their pensions, sued for everything they are worth, they and their families through out on the street, and they and their families socially branded and ostracized so badly that decent people refuse to interact with them. That would deter this sort of behavior from piggish jack-booted goons like these HPD.

None of your business.

^ +100

TSA is up there for me, and rising rapidly with their open hands groping "trial" at BOS and LAS -- it is so obvious that that is nothing more than an attempt to "incentivize" people to go through to strip search machine.

Cops, though, have real police powers and, as such, strike me as far more dangerous, especially with the increasingly militant attitude that many seem to employ. It's not a profession that attracts the best and brightest and that makes them even more scary.

I also put prosecutors very high on the list.

All cops, or just these cops?

That advice is limited to private individuals such as security guards and other rentacops. LEOs can confiscate anything they like given cause, and we can argue about whether these thugs had any until the cows come home. As opined above, there will be no comeback on this .

Reading this forum always makes me depressed, because of stories like this.

So sad...so sad....

But what else would be expected of thug TSA screeners and rogue cops? I'm sure that situations like this get them so excited that it's like giving each of them at least two tablets of Viagra.

It's too bad that nobody seems to realize that taking pictures in a public place is something that's allowed. Just because two high school dropouts had an issue with it doesn't make it illegal.

Perhaps in hindsight the best thing to have done would have been to try and lose them on the interterminal subway? Or perhaps to have called the police yourself? One could have always said that you were being followed by two individuals who had made threatening statements toward you.

Only really interested in the last part you said. In fact, not only did the BDOs not do anything "blantanly illegal", they did nothing illegal.

And are you serious? All of your argument can be thrown out the window after what you said. So much for freedom and liberty, huh? Punish innocent people because your pissed off at the actions of others. Nice. You win te hypocrite award of the month award. Good job.

Do you have plans to do anything about it, or just post here in dismay?

Maybe; not sure the ACLU would want it but a private attorney should be able to turn a 90-minute pointless detention into a lawsuit.

Then why would they take the camera with them?

Yes-- that one's a gem-- the TSA must've really pissed him off!

I would ask for the reports, the video and any audio there might be, even if no legal action is to take place. Videos might only be kept for 30 days.

These and many others. Police work no longer seems to done with the goal to serve and protect; it seems to be done today with the goal to catch as many "bad guys" as possible. Police work is about more than just that and the new generation of cops on the street don't seem to get that.

Do you remember life before tasers-- the olden days? In those days, if an officer wanted to control a combative subject there was a risk of injury to the officer should the officer choose to engage so the officer had great incentive to verbally deescalate the encounter. Today, cops can let their fingers do the talking-- and many do. And it doesn't help that police work, by its nature, can attract adrenaline junkies who like to get their fix any way they can.