So what exactly creates probable cause?
May 2, 2009 | 7:44 am
#166
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May 2, 2009 | 9:00 am
#167
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May 2, 2009 | 9:19 am
#168
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May 2, 2009 | 10:38 am
#169
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Does carrying that amount of money constitute probably cause to suspect he might be a drug dealer? If so, what would be the next step of the "investigation" if he refused to answer any question that would either admit or deny that fact (and he should not answer any such question for reasons that have been discussed numerous times)?
Was his flight one way?
Does he have any carry/check luggage?
Does he have a criminal history?, etc.
Probable cause in an inappropriate standard in this scenario. Depending on the results of an initial investigation, the money could be administratively seized, he would be given a receipt, and *the subject* would then carry the burden of demonstrating to a federal magistrate the legitimate ownership of the cash.
May 2, 2009 | 10:47 am
#170
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May 2, 2009 | 11:50 am
#171
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BTW I am still waiting for you to prove me wrong on the TSA blog.
May 2, 2009 | 11:53 am
#172
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Airline itinerary data is property of the airline and they are free to give it to law enforcement at their desecration. They are also free to tell the cop to get a warrant.
May 2, 2009 | 12:33 pm
#173
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May 2, 2009 | 1:06 pm
#174
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Someone re-posted my response to you over here, and you attempted to answer, but it still leaves the challenge on the TSA blog unanswered. The way it looks on the TSA blog is you just tucked tail and ran. You need to respond on the Blog.
May 2, 2009 | 2:06 pm
#175
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Aside from the issue of this being a violation of the basic "innocent until proven guilty" doctrine, how could somebody do that in practice? If I cashed a $4,300 check (the amount in the recent case), nobody would have a record of the serial numbers given to me. How could I prove those particular bills were the result of cashing that check? The whole point of such sums of cash is precisely that they aren't traceable.
May 2, 2009 | 2:42 pm
#176
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TSA officers do not have the authority to detain anyone. However, they DO have the authority to deny access beyond the checkpoint to anyone who has not been properly cleared through screening. This is not detention because that person can turn around and leave the screening area towards the public side.
Isn't that "gaming" the security system?
Is there even a route available to do that, without walking backwards through the WTMD?
May 2, 2009 | 2:47 pm
#177
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The Sterile area begins at the WTMD.
May 2, 2009 | 2:50 pm
#178
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May 2, 2009 | 7:12 pm
#179
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Of course, if they say no, then no it is, absent a warrant.
May 2, 2009 | 7:32 pm
#180
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Firstly, I don't see how you could legally obtain a passenger's itinerary without a warrant, but for the sake of argument, let's say that you could.
Your reply suggests that an itinerary with an international destination would give you probable cause, but as I have posted before, the FinCen 105's own instructions indicate that it may be filed at ANY point prior to departure.
So again, assuming that you can legally find out if this particular traveller is headed out of the country, there is most definitely no way for you to know (legally) whether or not he is planning to file his FinCen 105 on his way out of the country, or indeed whether or not he has ALREADY filed it.
It's not up to a citizen to demonstrate they are in compliance with the law, it's down to law enforcement to have reasonable grounds to believe that they are not.
Given that it is entirely plausible for someone to have cash AND be on their way out of the country AND have filed or be planning to file a FinCen105, having the first two pieces of information doesn't create probable cause.
You might just as well detain such a traveller for Jimmy Hoffa's murder, given that you don't have any evidence that he WASN'T responsible for it. Information on a FinCen105 is subject to the same Privacy Act restrictions that a tax return is, it is shared with specific agencies, for specific reasons, which have a duty to protect that information from those with no need to know. An airport LEO has no need to know about confidential, private information shared between a traveller and the IRS, and cannot legally get access to it.