Toshbaf

Last week in the Wall Street Journal, there was an article about training, including theft from bins at the airport. https://www.wsj.com/articles/airport...ool-1519826400

The 7-year-old girl watched a man lift a pair of shoes that weren’t his out of a plastic TSA screening bin and walk away from the checkpoint. “He’s stealing!” Elizabeth Gruber squealed. “Look! Look! Look!”


Last week, I saw mayhem and yelling in Seattle. A passenger was being frisked then yelling "STOP! THIEF! STOP! THIEF!" "Stop than man! He is stealing from the bin!" A lot of TSA agents walked over but they did not tackle anyone and the man walked away before anyone could stop him.

TWA884

Per its sticky post, the Practical Travel Safety and Security Issues forum is the place to ask questions and get information to help you travel safely and with minimal hassle.

Before posting there, please ask yourself, “If I were traveling today, is this something I need to know?”

Please follow this thread as it moves to the Checkpoints and Borders Policy Debate forum.

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TWA884
Travel Safety/Security co-moderator

FlyingUnderTheRadar

The TSA has no power of law enforcement and would only summon a LEO. So they are impotent. This is why when one is getting scoped and groped one should make sure all of their possessions are in their view.

Boggie Dog

While I agree that TSA screeners have no law enforcement authority they are responsible for what happens at their checkpoints. Too often TSA screeners intentionally separate travels from their property, position the traveler in such manner that sight contact can be maintained, or even removing items while the travelers is being detained in some manner. As usual TSA is the root cause of most screening issues.

Often1

TSA Officers do not have the authority to make arrests, but they may certainly detain an individual whom they have a reasonable suspicion to believe has committed a crime and hold that person for a brief period of time for a law enforcement officer.

petaluma1

TSA refuses to take responsibility for ANYTHING! It's always the fault of the other.

chollie

What do you mean by 'detain'? Are TSOs trained to physically restrain a pax until LE arrives?

Toshbaf

But what good is it if your possessions are in view and you see your things being stolen? Just yell "STOP THIEF!"?

Perhaps one should put valuables, such as a watch, wallet, keys, inside the bag. For greater measure, chain to bags together so they are hard to steal. Carrying a cable is odd, though.

Boggie Dog

TSA would likely confiscate the cable thinking you will try to tie up the pilots who are behind a locked door.

chollie

I've had something stolen at the checkpoint. Now I'm very cautious.

A few months ago, it was unintentionally comic. My rollaboard was pulled for a search. It was locked. The screener asked where the key for the lock was. I said it was in my daypack, still coming through the xray. When the daypack arrived, the main compartment was also locked - and the key for the rollaboard lock was inside. The screener did let me open the daypack to get the key for the lock on the rollaboard, but that meant that my daypack was also subject to a full swab-and-search.

When he remarked on the locks, I said I'd had something stolen at the checkpoint and I was trying to reduce the opportunities for theft. I rarely travel with electronics, except for a cellphone and my little point-and-shoot, which now also has to be removed from my daypack. He asked if I'd asked TSA to check the camera footage, and then he laughed. I think we both knew that the likelihood of TSA responding to a request for immediate footage review - or even to stop someone accused of being a thief - was pretty slim and would be awfully slow.

I pull my point-and-shoot camera out, but I loop the case handle through my daypack handles and load my daypack next to the bin with the camera. So far, that's added an extra bit of inconvenience for any would-be thieves, but it probably won't work with the auto-loading bins in ATL. Haven't tried it yet.

JamesBigglesworth

False. They are operating as screening agents. In that capacity they actually have *less* authority under law than any other citizen to detain anyone. If they try to detain *anyone* under colour of authority then they are breaking the law. They have the legal authority to screen you and/or forbid you from entering the sterile area. That is *all* they can legally do.

Section 107

This is correct. They can, however, request the person to "wait here" and more likely than not the person will assent to the request thinking the shiny (or embroidered) badge and sharp looking shirt with epaulets actually carries some authority until an actual law enforcement officer arrives.

Boggie Dog

Isn't that much different than being detained as you stated TSA screeners are authorized to do?

chollie

Sen. Rand Paul insisted TSA detained him. IIRC, like Stacey Amato, he was ushered into a glass enclosure and the entrance/exit was blocked by TSOs. Like Ms. Amato, any attempt to leave would have resulted in contact with a TSO, ie, assault on a government employee.

TSA insisted he was not detained, however.

petaluma1

I forget - was TSA forced to get rid of the detention pens in light of their claim that they don't detain passengers. I can't believe they got rid of them out of the goodness of their hears.