chollie

A TSA screener once told me that 'organic' material looks the same on the xray to an inexperienced/incompetent xray tech.

This is why some xray screeners claim to be unable to tell the difference between a block of cheese, a book, a brick of C4 explosive, a ham, or a brick of weed. The TSO said that bags get pulled for a search because of incompetence/inexperience, laziness (faster to bounce the bag for a search than to study the image more closely) or 'random' quotas used to justify a search because the screener believes s/he has spotted drugs.

gsoltso

I can not name things specifically, if you are truly interested, I have given you enough information to find what you are looking for.

Then we will just have to agree to disagree.

There are several items on xray that look like other things. These items can be identified sometimes, but sometimes they can not. Even the most experienced xray operator will come across items that they are unable to identify, or that look like they may be a possible threat - hence the bag checks. I can not speak for any other place, but I have not seen people going in bags to "look for illicit drugs" (neither positively identified or presumed). Again, I can not give specifics, because of the SSI regulations and requirements - however, as mentioned above, there is enough information in this thread to find the information you (or at least others) are looking for.

Boggie Dog

You know what thoughts are in the mind of every TSA xray operator? How do you know some xray operators are not flagging bags for a bag check when they think something other than WEI is in there? I am not as confident of TSA employees ethics as you seem to be.

FliesWay2Much

The only justification a clerk needs to search a bag is "I think I see something." They never have to justify what they thought they saw. I recall a court case discussed here several years ago where the clerk testified using this quote. If I recall correctly, the case had to do with finding a large amount of cash in a bag of a passenger who was some sort of political fundraiser.

WillCAD

Theoretically, they don't even need to "think they see something"; all the justification needed for a bag inspection is if they can't identify everything they see on the screen. Large amorphous blobs, or blocks, or odd shapes, or anything out of the ordinary (because anything out of the ordinary is automatically suspicious) is grounds for triggering a bag check.

Loren Pechtel

Yeah, I always figure a large blob is going to draw a search. Amorphous doesn't seem to matter.

gsoltso

Sorry for the late response, missed this one earlier.

No, neither you nor I know what is in the mind of any other TSO. However, I can state that I have not seen TSOs discussing "searching for drugs" (or any format thereof - with the exception of some TSOs indicating that they hoped there were no drugs in a bag because of the extra paperwork involved, which is a common situation in many jobs).

In many situations, even a person with a lack of ethics will defer to self preservation in a case where they think something other than WEI may be what they are looking at. TSA has expressly published that we are not to look specifically for drugs, however if we find them we contact the STSO (who then contacts the LEOs). Anything outside of that can expose a TSO to punitive action, which is universally bad.

FlyingHoustonian

They do also admit to searching for "large sums of undeclared cash" as noted out of the mouth of TSA in the above series. CBP doing outbound checks of flights is not uncommon for various reasons including undeclared 10k$+, having TSA admit the search for it is something showing up in more and more stories, articles, and other media. Them finding drugs is lauded by the agency often too.

Boggie Dog

Would you expect screeners to discuss with each other how they were going to do illegal searches?

I'm sure that TSA has all kinds of directives and policies but did that stop the guy up in Denver from sexually assaulting male travelers during screening? I'm sure doing what he was doing was against some TSA rule, and I would bet he didn't discuss it with very many screeners either but the ones he did discuss it with are as corrupt as he is.

gsoltso

Not necessarily, but working on the floor as I do, and training as many of my coworkers as I have, I would hope that I would notice things of that nature. A tendency to linger too long on a bag check that was for something fairly easy to clear, asking specific types of questions, searching the wrong parts of bags (all of the above are fairly easy to notice in a smaller airport).
I am also not stupid enough to think that I would be able to ferret out every single bad guy that comes into our checkpoint - which leads us back to the cameras and self preservation angle.

FliesWay2Much

While we are all confined to quarters and under house arrest, I'm relieved to know that the TSA is out there on the front lines brilliantly fighting the War on Drugs.

Here's just how serious this threat to civil aviation security really is:

I never understood that the TSA's War on Drugs keeps dangerous contraband out of our communities and saves lives. Don't believe me? Just ask the Houston airports Director of Operations:

Boggie Dog

Gives new meaning to loaded burrito.

No one but the screener knows what they were thinking but seems to me if the thought is "possible explosive" then why keep digging before calling in an expert?

Ari

LOL

The thought process might go something like "figure out a way to clear the item; it probably isn't a bomb" follow by "oops, it's looks like drugs, better call the popo". Not everything that can't be cleared on x-ray the first time is a suspected explosive device, sometimes it just needs to be cleared manually. Should they have called a BAO (or whatever they are called now)? Who knows what the thing looked like to them other than an unclearable blob.

Boggie Dog

TSA's focus should be limited to WEI. That should be the mindset in place for each and every screening.

gsoltso

The focus is WEI, but when we come across something like this in the course of making certain something isnt a dangerous item, like a WEI, we have to report it to LEOs. Most likely they saw something that looked like a weird chunk of something, with some even more weird stuff inside of it, and took a look. It happens all the time.