Boggie Dog

I won't argue what TSA SOP is on surrendering an item. To the traveler, who may have limited time to make other arrangements for an item that is being prohibited from entering the sterile area, confiscation is in all reality what happens. Why else would TSA need Rubber Maid bomb disposal containers at the checkpoint if not for all of those dangerous prohibited bottles of water and what have you? Besides SOP doesn't matter a bit since any TSO can determine if any particular item is permitted or not based on how they feel at that moment.

Carl Johnson

There is a low risk to passengers of confiscation of WEI because only 5% of WEI are detected, due to time spent on searching for empty cartridge casings and water bottles.

petaluma1

Please. Stop trying to rationalize away the fact that, once again, an official TSA source has used the word "confiscate" when describing the taking of personal property from a passenger.

Ari

Both of these are probably correct and not mutually exclusive.

HawaiiTrvlr

This was 10 years or so ago and I was going through a TSA checkpoint at DEN. I have been through the same checkpoint a dozen of times previously with no issue with a shell casing key ring. "Oh, this is prohibited. You can't travel with this." Um, what? It's just a casing. My finger nail clippers are more dangerous than this casing. After arguing with them a bit I might have called them both idiots. They didn't like that and an LEO was called. He confiscated the shell casing and said I was lucky they were allowing me to fly out. I wasn't sentimentally attached to the casing so I let them throw it away in that special plastic bin full of bottles of water and shaving gel larger than 3.4oz.

gsoltso

I am not rationalizing, I am making a statement of fact. As a policy, TSA does not confiscate, quite the opposite, the TSO is to offer options for the passenger to retain possession of the prohibited items. IF an item is in the WEI category, and has a specific response requirement (like bombs or guns), then there may indeed be a confiscation, but it would not be done by TSA, it would be done by a different organization. I also indicated that based upon reports here and elsewhere, that does not seem to be the way things are done 100% of the time - I will not equivocate at all, if the individual is not offered options to retain an item that is prohibited, and not considered a WEI (that requires another agency being incorporated), then the TSO not offering those options, is wrong.

Agreed. To some travelers with time constraints, or other reasons that prevent them from taking advantage of the options, it functions the same way as if TSA had told them, "we are going to take this". It is not confiscation, but the passenger still feels like it is.

Boggie Dog

It's confiscation, even TSA uses that language in its communications with the public.

chollie

I have had a TSO toss something of mine in the bin without offering me the option of exiting the checkpoint to dispose of it myself. When I said I wanted to exercise that option, the TSO shrugged and said "Too late" instead of retrieving my item from the bin.

What legal term do you think TSA HQ would consider appropriate to describe this action?

chollie

It's a perfect example of mindless 'security theater' vs.true security.

The fundamental question that should have been asked was: "Is this item in any way a threat to aviation security"?

The answer was clearly "no", so the item should have been allowed without even needing to refer to the 'rules' which suggest the item might be allowed depending on 'screener discretion'.

It's one thing to claim someone might intimidate the flight crew into opening the cockpit door if threatened with a realistic fake gun, but surely even the most poorly trained TSO can understand that a would-be terrorist isn't going to get very far threatening a plane load of people with a shell casing.

It occurs to me that this incident unfolded very very quickly. I assume the bins of confiscated items are disposed of at the end of every shift. I suspect retrieving a single small item after the bins have been emptied would be difficult. Was this issue escalated and the item retrieved all before shift end?

FliesWay2Much

I suspect the chain was already in someone's pocket ready to become a souvenir at the end of said souvenir hunter's shift. So, it was easy to "find" it among all the other "voluntarily surrendered" items.

Bearcat06

I've posted this on here before.

When I was working as a uniformed LEO at MCI, I got a call to a SW Gate.

Long story short, there was a 80ish year women crying her eyes out because the asshat "Agents" wanted to confiscate empty brass rifle casings from her brothers military funeral and a couple of other items that they said where "illegal."

SW gets involved but claims its to late to put it in her checked in-luggage...... (BS...hence the reason they haven't gotten a dime from me since).

Being the good LEO that I am, I take the items, get all her info, and after shift I go to the FedEX Support Area at the airport and send the stuff to her. I told them the story and manager shipped it for free.....

3-4 days later, my CPT gets a call saying they got the stuff and thanked me.

And folks wonder why I was such an ....... to "TSA" at MCI.