TSA wants to get more intimate when doing passenger pat downs.
Sep 25, 2018, 2:45 pm
#931
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 17,457
Perhaps this following story indicates TSA's concern over women's genitals. I wouldn't put it past TSA to suspect contraband being hidden.
Cracking Down on Contraband
Cracking Down on Contraband
Sep 25, 2018, 3:01 pm
#932
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 3,526
Perhaps this following story indicates TSA's concern over women's genitals. I wouldn't put it past TSA to suspect contraband being hidden.
Cracking Down on Contraband
Cracking Down on Contraband
When prisons have attempted to control tampon use in the past, courts have found the practice to be illegal. In March 2017, private prison operator CoreCivic reached an agreement with women who filed suit after a CoreCivic prison in Tennessee ordered them to remove their tampons or sanitary pads to prove they were menstruating and not trying to smuggle in contraband, according to the Associated Press.
Sep 25, 2018, 3:03 pm
#933
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 3,526
Department spokeswoman Lisa Kinney told the Times-Dispatch that visitors must go through a body scanner upon their arrival. Anyone shown to be using an offending feminine hygiene product must either agree to a strip search and have the item removed, or be sent home without seeing an inmate.
Sep 25, 2018, 3:37 pm
#934
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TWA884
Travel Safety/Security co-moderator
We realize that there is a very fine line between what is appropriate for the Checkpoints and Borders Policy Debate forum and what belongs in OMNI/PR, and it has just been crossed.
Please confine your comments here to security policies, what they are and what they should be. Discussion of congressional action or inaction, elections and consequences do not belong here.
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TWA884
Travel Safety/Security co-moderator
Sep 25, 2018, 6:34 pm
#935
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This.
There is ample evidence that TSOs across the country target black women's hair.
Not big hairdos and extensions or buns that might conceal something, regardless of the traveler's race or color.
No. A black woman with hair half-an-inch long will get nasty blue-gloved hands rubbed over her head even when her scalp is clearly visible.
Meanwhile, a white woman with a chignon that's built on a piece of hardware or three pounds of extensions will walk through unchallenged.
Maybe this is part of the 'cognitive' failing that TSA has apparently observed in screeners. That was supposedly why they would routinely run their hands over exposed bare skin - because it's too challenging and confusing to skip the entirely unnecessary skin contact.
That is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard - and if I were a screener, I would be pissed that my own HQ was suggesting I was that incapable.
There is ample evidence that TSOs across the country target black women's hair.
Not big hairdos and extensions or buns that might conceal something, regardless of the traveler's race or color.
No. A black woman with hair half-an-inch long will get nasty blue-gloved hands rubbed over her head even when her scalp is clearly visible.
Meanwhile, a white woman with a chignon that's built on a piece of hardware or three pounds of extensions will walk through unchallenged.
Maybe this is part of the 'cognitive' failing that TSA has apparently observed in screeners. That was supposedly why they would routinely run their hands over exposed bare skin - because it's too challenging and confusing to skip the entirely unnecessary skin contact.
That is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard - and if I were a screener, I would be pissed that my own HQ was suggesting I was that incapable.
Sep 25, 2018, 7:03 pm
#936
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 38,410
I see contact with the buttocks and the legs. Nothing with the front.
Sep 25, 2018, 7:07 pm
#937
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Posts: 38,410
ETD (maybe ETD only detects hand lotions and not real explosives) should detect pancake explosives. I asked but didn't receive a response if ETD would detect the chemicals used in detonators. Regardless without both components about the worst you would have is a fuel source for a hot fire.
It's a real shame that ETD testers as used by TSA are near worthless since they primarily false alarm on non-explosive materials.
A short primer on detonators:
Detonator
It's a real shame that ETD testers as used by TSA are near worthless since they primarily false alarm on non-explosive materials.
A short primer on detonators:
Detonator
Sep 25, 2018, 7:08 pm
#938
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: DFW
Posts: 28,114
TSA? They won't go that far yet, but as already reported are paying increased attention to crotches, womens crotches in particular. Side handed chops between the legs are done to see if any thing is placed there, at least that's my guess. Items internally secreted, I'm not sure TSA wants to go there just yet. But if you see these things showing up all bets are off. Body Orfice Scanner
Sep 25, 2018, 8:02 pm
#940
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Right or wrong the machines are now all driven by machine learning algorithms that look at what is "normal" vs "not normal". Any attire, headdress, or other thing that is not "normal" is more likely to flag. Perhaps most people don't travel in yoga pants so this is more likely to fag.
Sep 25, 2018, 8:06 pm
#941
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Being nude would almost certainly cause it to trigger because it would be highly anomalous to a regular scan. Don't conflate whether it makes "sense" (it is hard to conceal something under skin-tight clothing) versus how the computer decides whether or not to flag someone. Perhaps they do need to do work to reduce flags from skin-tight clothing if this is indeed an endemic issue, but I doubt this is an intentional design consideration.
Sep 25, 2018, 8:29 pm
#942
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TSA is all about deflection, traveler states observed facts, deflect with some ginned up video. Talk about screening nuns and deflect with Nigerian plots and Boko Haram, wash, rinse and repeat. A tactic observed across all of TSA.
Last edited by Boggie Dog; Sep 26, 2018 at 9:19 am Reason: edited for clarity
Sep 26, 2018, 7:48 am
#943
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Greensboro
Programs: TSA
Posts: 2,424
I have not seen that in practice, nor have I seen anything from the agency indicating that this is the case. It may simply be that more people complain about having the groin area cleared, than other areas - the machines alarm far more often on arms and wrists than the groin area in my experience.
Sep 26, 2018, 7:52 am
#944
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Greensboro
Programs: TSA
Posts: 2,424
I can not help what you are seeing, but I will tell you what is actually happening at those times mentioned above - the TSO is patting down the front of the body, commonly referred to as the groin area. If you do not see what is actually happening, then I am at an impasse at how to communicate with you.
Sep 26, 2018, 8:45 am
#945
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The strip search machines alarm far more on the groin area than elsewhere beside one or two upper limbs for people who would clear an WTMD set to alarm for metal and nothing else. Keep in mind that the massive roll out of strip search machines at airports were done using underwear bombers as the threat. Before that, the machines were way less common and the airport ones were less likely to alarm on groin areas than now.