The question you asked was whether we would want you to stop a child pornographer. Everyone said "no." Let's not worry about who is assuming what about your actions. You had questions, we had answers.

Sorry, TK, the question was actually about fun at the airport. Please continue.

Mike

hiyo :D

RE: recording
I would add a tag line to your shirt.
" *Interactions with this person may be recorded for quality control. Continuing interaction is acceptance of these terms"

I'm working on a t-shirt design that notifies interested parties that audio and video recording devices may be in use. I also want to put a similar sticker on my car, and have a camera ready. There are too many people out there who will lie about their interaction with us in ways that can land us in hot water. Having the unbiased third party that is a video camera involved would, it seems, mitigate the risk of such unethical (and possibly illegal) behavior.

See, that seems inconsistent with what I've read from other TSOs here (notably TSORon). He's said that if he suspects something is drugs, he always refers it on to the appropriate folks. Here, you say (if I read you correctly) that if you suspect something is drugs, but aren't sure, you don't refer it on.

Which behavior is the one mandated by TSA? The difference is subtle, but important.

Let's be clear ... I don't think anyone here is in favor of child porn.

But we have an imperfect legal system. Sometimes, guilty people go free; sometimes, innocent people go to prison. Where we, as a society, set the lines regarding what those in authority are allowed to do determines, as a whole, the balance we strike between those two undesirable outcomes. Generally, we've decided as a society that it's more important to keep innocent people from going to prison than to guarantee that every guilt person goes to prison. Sometimes, that means exceedingly scum-filled people go free. That's the price we've decided to pay for our civil liberties.

I suppose that you could always come through the checkpoint with the empty shell of a tape recorder or a video recorder ... and honestly tell anyone who is concerned about it that "it's not a tape recorder" ...

MCO is a tough airport to do anything because it's so busy with a lot of touristas most of the time. On the other hand, a large airport will invariably have some hair-trigger SPOTNiks running around. Some ideas:

1. Somebody already mentioned taking a copy of the unredacted SOP with you. You could perhaps figure out a way to discretely leave it at the checkpoint as you walk away. Unless you can figure out a way to hang around the checkpoint (maybe take a long time to put your shoes back on or something), you won't be able to see the fruits of your labor.
2. Take a big bottle of bath powder hoping to trigger the new War on Powders by getting the bottle inspected. I read somewhere (a screener posted this) that they are interested in containers of powder bigger than 12 ozs (I think). Regardless, I know that my 15-oz bottle of bath powder breaks the threshold. You could talk to the screener like a Kettle and suggest that inspecting containers of powder would be a great way to find people carrying drugs. Your reward would be to bait the screener into admitting that they do, in fact, search for drugs. Who knows where that conversation would go.

3. This one would work better with checked luggage: Take a blank DVD and write "My Best Porn" on it or some other phrase to draw attention to it as being some sort of porn DVD copy. Put on a video file, title it "porn movie" or something like that, and have a slide show with a few powerpoint slides telling the screener just what you think of him for taking the bait. This is a long shot. I'm not sure you could easily get it stolen at a checkpoint.

4. Eat lots of chili and hope you get a frisking. You could release some pretty lethal chemical weapons.

Substitute the grass clippings for dried oregano. :D

Print up fake studio audience tickets to "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?" and give them to the BDO that annoys you and the TSO that barks at you.

If a BDO asks you any questions, pull out a Magic 8 Ball and read him the answer. ;)

but then he would confiscate it since it has liquid in it...... very funny though

Wirelessly posted (Treo: BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.297 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

Insist on giving everyone working at the checkpoint one of those Valentines Day candy hearts with a cheesy message printed on it. Just thanking them for keeping us all safe. :p

Oh, just bring a doctor's note...:p

After you buy a fresh pair of whitie-tighties and stain them with brown shoe polish or something of that nature, take EVERYTHING out of the carryon and put one item per bin. One bin = one shirt. As soon as you get past ticket/id check, take every single bin and ask for more because all your items in your carryon will not fit in the bins they have there, and when they tell you not too take everything out, insist on doing it because it is a civil liberty, while you're holding up a box of condoms, a toy barbie, and a pair of "stained" underwear.

I bet they will be shocked.

Would you care to show me the law that requires this of TSO's when conducting an administrative search? I'll help you out - it doesn't exist.

If you really believe this to be a requirement, what are the legal adverse consequences for failing to report something illegal? There are none and, as such, a duty to report does not exist. Let me know of one TSO that has been reprimanded for failing to report a non-WEI illegal item. If that has happened, then not only does that TSO have a valid grievance, but a defense attorney would relish that as Exhibit A in defending his client who was found with a non-WEI illegal item in an administrative search.

But how can you know they are drugs if you have had no training in detecting drugs? Based on the SOP, you should never report a substance to an LEO since you are not 100% sure it is an illegal drug.

Don't you think that if Congress and the President thought it was so important for you to find child pornography and illegal drugs, they would have authorized you to so? Instead, we have to go with the illusion of searching only for WEI so that when you come across something non-WEI illegal, it can be seized and the owner prosecuted.