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My "interaction" with a TSA BDO (aka Spot-nick) at EWR May 13, 2017

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My "interaction" with a TSA BDO (aka Spot-nick) at EWR May 13, 2017

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Old May 15, 2017, 9:42 am
  #16  
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Originally Posted by Bikeguy
Originally Posted by pt flyer
I guess I really don't understand the point you are trying to make..... At this point, all I see is that you think that you somehow were smarter/better/etc. than the TSA officer and you went out of your way to annoy him/her.

I don't see any reason to make the job of TSA officers harder. Maybe there is an important point that I missed that means I haven't really understood your post. I hope so.
The point is, if you are TSA and blatant about what you are doing, you will be ineffective.

Kinda like the lazy police officer who runs radar on every car, so the people with radar detectors always slow down.

Way better to wait 3 minutes and have a fresh group of people to ask your behavioral questions of.

If you actually want to catch people using your techniques, you can't ask people that just saw what you did.

goalie provided valuable feedback to the TSA agent. Now, it is up to the TSA agent to either up his game or get messed with in the future.
What Bikeguy said ^

Originally Posted by awayIgo
I agree that you were out of line. If you ever visit Israel don't even think of responding in this fashion. You'd be tagged so quickly for a secondary screening your head would spin.
As a citizen in my own country, I play by the rules (freedom baggie, secondary screening (if selected) with a witness and etc) but if I am in a foreign country, I play by their rules with absolutely zero interference from me as I am well aware of what the outcome could be (including this nice Jewish boy visiting Israel) but as many of us know, the TSA is inept and can screw up a free lunch so why not, while not violating any rules, call them out when they screw up

Originally Posted by garykung
OP is, per the credential, a part of SFPD. Quite the opposite, if OP has and/or shows a SFPD ID claiming he is not one of them, that will be a major trouble, which I have learned in a hard way previously.

(For the record, all SFPD personnel are credentialed by City and County of San Francisco (CCSF).)

While I can't claim OP is showing off, somehow those TSA agents have to be taught.

In my case, I always use my airport ID to travel, which many TSA agents gladly accepted it as a valid ID. Some are, sorry to say, stupid enough to ask me a second form of ID.

(For the record, a SFPD ID or CCSF employee badge is not an acceptable ID per the TSA list.)
Correct as to being credentialed, correct as to what could/would happen if claiming I was part the SFPD and I was not and while not showing off in any manner or intent, the BDO needed to be educated that he was sticking out like a sore thumb. And yes, while my SFPD I/D is not accepted at the security checkpoint (I use my G/E I/D)), I did purposely show it to the BDO to hopefully make him go away
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Old May 15, 2017, 11:32 am
  #17  
 
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BDO: How are you today?
Me: I'm sorry, do I know you?
BDO: No, just polite conversation.
Me: I make it a rule not to talk to strangers.

On my merry way........
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Old May 15, 2017, 12:02 pm
  #18  
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The one thing I take away from this thread is that when someone tells me they are "with the XYZ-PD" I will now ask them if are actually a police officer or some auxiliary civilian non-employee trying to impress me with a somewhat misleading statement.
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Old May 16, 2017, 9:41 am
  #19  
 
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Originally Posted by notquiteaff
The one thing I take away from this thread is that when someone tells me they are "with the XYZ-PD" I will now ask them if are actually a police officer or some auxiliary civilian non-employee trying to impress me with a somewhat misleading statement.
I don't get the impression the OP was trying to "impress" the BDO... I think he was trying to make him go away and figured the SFPD ID would do the trick (and he was correct). Nor do I feel like he was trying to mislead the BDO (or us)... his SFPD ID likely specifies his specific role in the department. Had the BDO asked "are you a cop?" and the OP said "yes" now that would be a different story.
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Old May 16, 2017, 10:33 am
  #20  
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Originally Posted by hoth300
Originally Posted by notquiteaff
The one thing I take away from this thread is that when someone tells me they are "with the XYZ-PD" I will now ask them if are actually a police officer or some auxiliary civilian non-employee trying to impress me with a somewhat misleading statement.
I don't get the impression the OP was trying to "impress" the BDO... I think he was trying to make him go away and figured the SFPD ID would do the trick (and he was correct). Nor do I feel like he was trying to mislead the BDO (or us)... his SFPD ID likely specifies his specific role in the department. Had the BDO asked "are you a cop?" and the OP said "yes" now that would be a different story.
Exactly what hoth300 said-not wanting to impress and/or mislead in any way. I simply wanted the BDO to go away and had he asked if i was a cop, I would not have lied and told him the truth that I was a civilian employee (and my I/D specifically states that I am not a peace officer-which the BDO should have seen if he got past reading "San Francisco Police Department" )
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Old May 16, 2017, 11:18 am
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Originally Posted by goalie
Exactly what hoth300 said-not wanting to impress and/or mislead in any way. I simply wanted the BDO to go away and had he asked if i was a cop, I would not have lied and told him the truth that I was a civilian employee (and my I/D specifically states that I am not a peace officer-which the BDO should have seen if he got past reading "San Francisco Police Department" )
We all have our different tactics! pretending I don't speak English is a favorite of mine
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Old May 16, 2017, 11:46 am
  #22  
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Some folks only see the uniform and instantly go to "submit to the alpha" mode.
Some see another guy in funny clothes and treat the interaction as they do normally. Maybe neutrally, maybe with respect, maybe with humor, maybe with disdain. Depending on how the person deals with them. But not depending on their clothes. Immediate submission just isn't as imprinted on Americans as some other cultures. Believe me, the uniformed in the States hate that and at least in some sectors now use lethal force as their first response to non-compliance. Of course, that's had an effect, but even that hasn't frightened everyone into sheep.
As the OP says, this only applies with people sharing a common culture. In this case, there was an undertone of trolling going on. Its America. Trolling is the national pastime. All the way to the White House. It's what we do.
I've heard some pretty loud dustups among citizens and security in what I call "screaming cultures." But I wouldn't try that there. I wouldn't even know how to.
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Old May 16, 2017, 12:43 pm
  #23  
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Originally Posted by hoth300
Originally Posted by goalie
Exactly what hoth300 said-not wanting to impress and/or mislead in any way. I simply wanted the BDO to go away and had he asked if i was a cop, I would not have lied and told him the truth that I was a civilian employee (and my I/D specifically states that I am not a peace officer-which the BDO should have seen if he got past reading "San Francisco Police Department" )
We all have our different tactics! pretending I don't speak English is a favorite of mine
Que?
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Old May 16, 2017, 1:15 pm
  #24  
 
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goalie maybe I won't be popular, but lmao.
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Old May 16, 2017, 8:28 pm
  #25  
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I question the usefulness of a BDO who thinks someone is suspicious enough to be identified to other TSOs and to be followed for further questioning but whose suspicions immediately go away as soon as he sees a piece of ID that might not even qualify at the TDC.

Because employees of police departments never go bad and he was well-trained enough to be certain that this was legitimate, non-forged ID.

smh
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Old May 17, 2017, 12:42 am
  #26  
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Originally Posted by chollie
I question the usefulness of a BDO...
You should question TSA as a whole instead.
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Old May 17, 2017, 9:44 am
  #27  
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Originally Posted by chollie
I question the usefulness of a BDO who thinks someone is suspicious enough to be identified to other TSOs and to be followed for further questioning but whose suspicions immediately go away as soon as he sees a piece of ID that might not even qualify at the TDC.

Because employees of police departments never go bad and he was well-trained enough to be certain that this was legitimate, non-forged ID.

smh
Bolding mine: The TSA BDO program is a flat out joke. You have "a 21 day wonder" vs the Israeli model where iirc, they go thru 18 months of training and their system works
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Old May 17, 2017, 9:56 am
  #28  
 
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Originally Posted by hoth300
We all have our different tactics! pretending I don't speak English is a favorite of mine
Yes, but that may not work because a TSA clerk may be ahead of you by actually being unable to speak English.
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Old May 17, 2017, 9:57 am
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Originally Posted by goalie
Que?
Wie bitte?
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Old May 17, 2017, 10:07 am
  #30  
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Originally Posted by goalie
Bolding mine: The TSA BDO program is a flat out joke. You have "a 21 day wonder" vs the Israeli model where iirc, they go thru 18 months of training and their system works
Your interaction took BDO/Spotnik encounters to a whole new level of absurdity, IMHO.

You alarmed him enough to discuss you with another TSO and to pursue you for a follow-up interrogation.

Then you were able to completely dispel his suspicions just by showing him an ID.

1) how did he have any way of knowing if the ID wasn't fake?
2) even if the ID is genuine, he alerted on your suspicious behavior, not your identity.

The program (based on this one encounter) is even stupider than I thought.
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