Last week my wife was traveling home to her country for a week. As she was going through TSA checkpoint at CMH her bag was held in the x-ray machine and CMH airport police were called. While in the x-ray machine the TSA mistook a picture frame for a gun which is what caused them to call airport police. Basically she was detained and the airport police searched her bag took copies of her international passport, LPR card, and her Ohio DL. During there search they broke part of her bag.

My question is should we file a complaint with the TSA over such a horrible mis-identification and causing her to be delayed and her belongings to be damaged or with CMH airport police for damaging her bag. Plus will such a call lead to any future haraSSSSment?

Thank you for you time in your replies.

The complaint for damage is against the law enforcement agency which damaged her bag, not TSA.

All TSA did was follow its standard protocol which errs on the side of caution.

You won't likely get anywhere with the complaint, but it's also not likely to lead to any negative consequences for her.

If filing the complaint will make you feel better, then by all means file away!

If you're expecting damages, or changes, or even the decency of a human to human apology... it's just an exercise in further disappointment.

For once, I agree with this. TSA is supposed to stop the machine and call the cops if they think they see a gun on x-ray.

To recover for the damage, you'd probably have to file a small claims action against the cops. Chances you'll win are pretty low; they rarely pay out even when they totally trash someone's house and shoot their dog on a bogus warrant — let alone something like this.

TSA isn't liable for the cops' damaging your bag during the cops' search — only the cops are. You could maybe argue that the TSA acted wrongly if no reasonable person would have thought the x-ray image was a gun, but (a) you probably don't have the evidence and they probably didn't save it, (b) it'd be a 4th amendment or false light type claim, i.e. for everything *up to* the cops arriving, not after, (c) even if you had the evidence you'd probably lose.

How much is the cost of the damage?

FWIW, small claims is generally pretty easy, fairly cheap, and much more lenient on plaintiffs than any other process. If you want to get your money back, or just the satisfaction, go for it. Be sure to first ask the cops (officially) to pay you voluntarily.


ETA: As for filing complaints leading to extra harassment from TSA: TTBOMK, I'm not even on selectee list. If pissing off TSA to the point that it becomes a pretty big deal to HQ (per their internal emails) isn't enough to get me listed, this sure as hell ain't going to do it.

I've only once gotten recognized (AFAIK) by low-level TSA personnel — and that was a manager at SFO who had seen me on TV and retrained her staff because of it.

In most locations to file a claim against the government (at any level) one must first file a notice of claim or something like that before one files a lawsuit.

That said, I would just file a claim with the TSA.

Most governments have a way of making monetary claims against them. In fact, this is usually required before going to court. OP should file a claim with the government that manages the police, which is probably either the city or the airport authority. This is usually easy and free.

This is one reason why the Hannah Cohen suit (St. Jude Patient) fails.