Are TSA agents equal to Law Enforcement Officers?
Feb 27, 2009, 11:47 am
#91
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Southern California
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Folks, we've had to remove a number of posts where members were either attacking each other or being exceptionally rude or inconsiderate of other members.
If you want to continue to post on FlyerTalk and in the Travel Safety/Security forum, we ask that you are civil to your fellow members and that you limit your posts to the subject at hand. Posts should be about the topic and not about what you think of your fellow members.
Thanks for your cooperation.
_______________
Cholula
Travel Safety/Security Forum Co-Moderator
If you want to continue to post on FlyerTalk and in the Travel Safety/Security forum, we ask that you are civil to your fellow members and that you limit your posts to the subject at hand. Posts should be about the topic and not about what you think of your fellow members.
Thanks for your cooperation.
_______________
Cholula
Travel Safety/Security Forum Co-Moderator
Feb 27, 2009, 3:21 pm
#92
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 4
Umm, don't mean to be telling you your business but, yes, I have seen TSA folks with all of the items I listed in my original post on their belt. May have been pepper spray instead of mace but it was, indeed, a small cannister of some type of spray in a black leather belt attachment; unless these guys carry their breath fresheners or Hi Karate around with them on their belts then it was some spray agent intended for defense or apprehension purposes. And, yes (again) I have seen TSA agents with handcuffs and nightsticks/billy clubs on their belts too. I really hate to make an obvious statement but it was I (not you) who saw this and reported it; and unless you were there and witnessed the incident I described - and, thus can give a first hand eyewitness account to counter my observations, then please keep your personal opinions as to who saw what to yourself. You obviously didn't read the first comments in my post where I commended the TSA folks for being much more reasonable and pleasant in recent years and I specifically dated my unsettling TSA experience to several years ago when the program was just getting started - at a time where I suspect there were quite a few LEO wannabes hired on.
Feb 27, 2009, 8:34 pm
#93
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 239
Umm, don't mean to be telling you your business but, yes, I have seen TSA folks with all of the items I listed in my original post on their belt. May have been pepper spray instead of mace but it was, indeed, a small cannister of some type of spray in a black leather belt attachment; unless these guys carry their breath fresheners or Hi Karate around with them on their belts then it was some spray agent intended for defense or apprehension purposes. And, yes (again) I have seen TSA agents with handcuffs and nightsticks/billy clubs on their belts too. I really hate to make an obvious statement but it was I (not you) who saw this and reported it; and unless you were there and witnessed the incident I described - and, thus can give a first hand eyewitness account to counter my observations, then please keep your personal opinions as to who saw what to yourself. You obviously didn't read the first comments in my post where I commended the TSA folks for being much more reasonable and pleasant in recent years and I specifically dated my unsettling TSA experience to several years ago when the program was just getting started - at a time where I suspect there were quite a few LEO wannabes hired on.
Feb 28, 2009, 9:45 am
#96
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: DFW
Posts: 28,178
TSOs carrying unauthorized police-style gear is very, very, very against the rules. Just carrying pepper spray/mace or nightsticks/billy clubs into a checkpoint is potentially a firing offense. If you, in fact, saw this sort of stuff, those employees, and the supervisors/managment who allowed it, are probably long since fired. If you see this again, it should be reported, immediately.