we had an incident here in honolulu on wensday where a person left the courthouse, went to the airport and bought a one way ticket to guam with cash and made the flight without any problem. the part I do not understand is how did he do it because buying a one way ticket with cash {I thought} would raise all the red flags at the checkpoint.he was caught in guam.

Was it not OK for him to go to Guam??? And what do you mean by caught? Buying a one-way ticket with cash should get you extra scrutiny but it in no way means you can't fly.

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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben Franklin

Exactly, buying a one way ticket, paying with cash, single male travelling alone, plus other things will get you extra security check. However, the screeners are not allowed to detain or even stop anyone. Much less someone who they have no idea to look for.

And since our wonderful governement has spent more time trying to enact legislation that would provide them with more confidential information about passengers (that they will most definitely mishandle and abuse), rather then working on sharing information already available to different agencies, the chances of this guy being stopped, even if he just escaped from prison, are about nil.



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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben Franklin

And since WHEN has the word about an escaped prisoner EVER been broadly broadcast? Look what it has taken to get the Amber alert system up, and even THAT is only in certain areas. No, you cannot equate that with the selectee system, which by the way, was in place YEARS before 9/11.

Now, now, don't get your knickers in an uproar! I can equate whatever I like. I think the CAPPS system needs improvements but adding more personal information rather then better utilizing the information already available is not the solution to the problem. I know that CAPPS was in place pre 9-11 and who said anything about the Amber alert????

Yeeesh, just when it seemed we were getting along. pfffftt!



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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben Franklin

Now now, you are right, the information should be utilized better. However, the original poster asked why this guy was not stopped at the airport. Well, the screeners are not there for that, the airport police will not do anything unless they are notified to be on the look-out. My point about the Amber alert system was to illustrate just how difficult it is to get pertinant information out to the very people who might need it in a real-time scenario. Better?

Exactly what was the "incident"?



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"Give me Liberty or give me Death." - Patrick Henry

spiff, the man was to be sentenced fori believe 3 counts of child molestation and fled the courthouse. called his lawyer and said he would give himself up, but fled to guam instead. my question is, with all the raised level of security that we now are under, why is there not more co-operation between the police and tsa as there job is to screen passengers and not allow this type of problem to happen,to me, this is a case of the left hand not talking to the right as if you say the police are the ones to stop and arrest or detain people.

Good Lord no... Let's not give the TSA any additional responsibilities. They can't yet handle the simple ones they've been given...

This guy (the criminal) sounds like a real scumbag and I'm glad that they did catch him so he could serve his jail/prison time... and hopefully be locked up for a very long time.

It sounds like the police at the courthouse should have notified the police at the airports to be on the lookout for this person. Typically there are law enforcement officers who oversee the security checkpoints and watch everyone who goes through. In this case, the airport police at HNL should have been notified. In addition to notification, a picture of the criminal should have been immediately faxed (or emailed) to the airport (and photocopied & distributed to the LEOs) so the police at the airport could be on the lookout for the perp. (Sounds quite simple, eh? Fax, photocopy & distribute).

If anything, it sounds like a breakdown in the local police / law enforcement system. If a criminal escaped from a courthouse here in Louisville or from any of the local county jails (or the state Prison in Oldham County), I would certainly hope the police at SDF would be notified and receive a faxed/emailed mug shot of the criminal.

That being said, it's possible the police at the airport were notified but just didn't see or find this person.

1) Perhaps they were notified to be on the lookout but were given a poor description or didn't get a copy of his mug.

2) Perhaps a general notification went out and they ignored it.

3) Perhaps they just weren't notified at all.

Regardless, it appears to be a local law enforcement problem and not a problem with airport security in general or the TSA. Let's not give the TSA any additional responsibility as clrankin said quite well -- and lets get rid of these FBI watch lists / no fly lists while we are at it.

By the way, I just read yet another report of problems with the no fly list (anyone surprised?).

If your name is David Nelson, don't expect a routine trip through the airport; that name is on the evil-doer list, er no-fly list (or is creating a Soundex match) and "David Nelson"'s through-out this "free" country of ours are being detained and harassed at airports.

Frightening, isn't it? How many David Nelson's do you think fly each day? How many innocent David Nelson's are being detained and harassed each day? Hell, the mighty federal government might as well add Adams, Johnson, Jones, King, Lincoln, Richards, Roberts, Smith, Washington, and every other common last name to the no-fly list too while they're at it. Who knows, one of them might be an evil-doer too..

How about this: All TSA employees should be required to obtain a boarding pass to get to the checkpoint in order to report to work. Since our no-fly list works so well, this way if an evil-doer happens to be working for the TSA, they will be detained & harassed as well. Afterall, if passengers must be matched to this list, why not match TSA employees to this list? Fair is fair, right?

I wonder how many TSA employees would match the no-fly list the way it's currently being managed? Who wants to bet there will be quite a few hits? Oh, and if CAPPS II is ever deployed nationwide, I say the same CAPPS II standards and codes should be issued to TSA employees reporting to work as well. I wonder how many would come up as yellows or red?

Is anyone feeling safe yet??

Best,

SDF_Traveler

[edited for spell check in MS Word]
[edited to correct a name]
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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben Franklin

[This message has been edited by SDF_Traveler (edited 06-16-2003).]

[This message has been edited by SDF_Traveler (edited 06-16-2003).]