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TSA Using Passenger Screening Dogs

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Old Jun 27, 2022 | 8:23 am
  #136  
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I've seen this several times at SFO A terminal and once at JFK T4; I'm sure it happens elsewhere. They'll never tell you whether it's a random exercise or because there's some specific perceived threat. All part of the post-9/11 security theatre.
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Old Jun 27, 2022 | 8:46 am
  #137  
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I’ve only encountered the dogs at the international recheck line in IAH. And when the dogs were being used they offered Precheck.
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Old Jun 27, 2022 | 8:48 am
  #138  
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They've used dogs at SAN as well. Nothing new.
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Old Jun 27, 2022 | 9:29 am
  #139  
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Originally Posted by BZRORG
Ive seen this at IAD at the non TSA pre check line when i was going through with someone who was not eligible for pre check. This was pre going down the escalators to the actual security lanes (to the right of the elevators, in front of the TK check in area). People were then directed to go down the elevators and not the escalators.
I went through this when I went through IAD security with P2 who didn't have precheck at the time but I had precheck. They told me I walked too fast which was not true as I kept pace with the person next to me... but obviously you shouldn't argue so I had to then go to the back of the long line and walk it again. At that point might as well have gone to precheck but that could have been suspicious so I didn't want to do that and risk whatever the TSA authoritarians wanted to unleash so I just waited in line and did the dance again.
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Old Jun 27, 2022 | 9:54 am
  #140  
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Originally Posted by jsloan
The dogs sniff for explosives. As to the purpose it serves pretty much the same purpose as the rest of the security operations.


Sometimes they seem to open the metal detectors instead of the body scanners (to quote: pretty much the same purpose as the rest of the security operations). An hour later, they might have swapped everything around.
+1 - since you passed the dog test, they can proceed with the metal detector instead of body scanner, as the metal detector test is faster.
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Old Jun 27, 2022 | 10:31 am
  #141  
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/tedreed...s-this-summer/ - 6 years old, but covers the general concept.

In general using dogs speeds up the security process significantly - there's a short delay for the dog part of the process, but as you've said they then use metal detectors rather than full-body scanners which speeds things up.

Although I have seen this at SFO, in my experience it's not common there. I've experienced it at nearby SJC far more than SFO - I'm not sure if that's because SFO isn't TSA as such (but instead a third-party called CSA), or just because I've never managed to be there at the right time...
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Old Jul 14, 2022 | 9:00 am
  #142  
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TSA Uses Decoy Clerks to Test Their Dogs

Pretty detailed explanation here on good ol' Reddit. News to me! Did anyone know that the TSA does this?
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Old Jul 14, 2022 | 4:19 pm
  #143  
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Originally Posted by docbert
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tedreed...s-this-summer/ - 6 years old, but covers the general concept.

In general using dogs speeds up the security process significantly - there's a short delay for the dog part of the process, but as you've said they then use metal detectors rather than full-body scanners which speeds things up.

Although I have seen this at SFO, in my experience it's not common there. I've experienced it at nearby SJC far more than SFO - I'm not sure if that's because SFO isn't TSA as such (but instead a third-party called CSA), or just because I've never managed to be there at the right time...
Maybe in theory but every time I've seen the dogs at IAH there was an abnormally huge line and the dogs were simply slowing down the process with false positives and other issues.

Of course anyone with Clear and/or precheck (that's most of us) rarely uses anything but the regular metal detectors so there is no advantage whatsoever from these dogs.

Thankfully never seen this at my home airports of SFO or OAK.
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