TSA Detection?
 

Since FT folks use the TSA checkpoints so frequently, we might be in a position to collect anecdotes or maybe even real data about TSA detection. Do people feel comfortable talking about how often TSA detects or misses things it says it detects?

I'm kind of reluctant to ask this question, since my personal experiences are consistent with the red-team detection percentages that so embarrass the TSA. If TSA detection's detection percentage is so low on the things they say they detect, why should anyone expect it to be better on more important things?

How often do you fly with:

• Undetected/unexamined water
• Unexamined oversize LGA (saline, water...)
• Unbagged 311
• Anything "dangerous" :rolleyes:
• Wrong boarding passes / ID
• etc....

I've accidently done them all, but don't recall how often.

Personally, I've flown with my knifeless tiny swiss army penknife at least 30 times over the last two years and it has been detected only once. (In case you think it isn't catch-worthy to the TSA, the TSO who bag checked it scolded me that I'll have problems with it every time and I should present it specially and separately before the x-ray.)

I'd rate this a <3% detection rate for penknives packed similarly.

Lets see...

I have a Nalgene that I travel with all of the time. It is usually half-full, but I once took it through full! Not even a peep from the screener....

I work in an IT Department, so when I travel, I have a few screw-drivers in my bag. They are easily more than four inches. Have not had problems with these being taken or questioned...

One time a year or two ago, I was at a shooting range... Unknown to me, I left a few bullets in my jacket pocket, which was run through the x-ray... Not a yap from TSA..

I suppose most of the stuff I travel with is considered dangerous... I could remove the battery from my laptop and hit people with it... I could stab people with my pen. I could also strangle or tie-up people with my laptop charger...

I always carry my alarm clock with me...never questioned...

http://news.softpedia.com/images/new...m-Clocks-2.jpg

:p:D

I also make sure to have a TSA sticker visible... http://roguejew.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/tsa-2.jpg

My boss says that he always leaves his Freedom Bag inside his bag, rarely gets noticed (of course, we went through a very small airport a month ago, and that's where he got a thorough bag search as retaliation).

I just take the bag out. I have a couple of items that are within the limit, but at first glance appear oversize.

I just carry replacement Freedom Bags after a TSAer touches it. Heaven knows what else those blue gloves have touched (and, no, that's not a shot at the hygiene of TSAers).

:( Last week, at LAX (LAX to JFK), I left on purpose a bottle of water (yeah, thirsty and tired and also tired of the rip-off prices at airports) in the hope nobody would notice, but they did. I won additional hand searches of carry-on and laptop bag (one TSO -female- yelled at me because of the water and took the laptop bag away from my sight, other TSO -male- was much nicer -polite-, took care of my carry-on, in front of me).

When I was collecting all my things, I noticed I had forgotten 2 hand & body lotion bottles visible and exposed :eek: (less than 3 oz each, but "unbagged", my 311 bag was already full, these were supposed to be in my checked bag, but I had forgotten to put them there). I didn't want my favorite lotion confiscated, I was lucky, I guess ;)

The moral to this story is that all any terrorist has to do to get forbidden items through security is to create a large bottle of water diversion.

If you know how to reduce the chances of a pat-down and how to avoid setting off the WTMD by managing the amount of metal on your body, such a penknife (with or without blade) will pass through the WTMD without alarm, giving a detection rate much lower than 3%. Widespread use of WBI for primary screening (and 100% pat downs for everyone else who refuses) will of course increase that detection rate.

I traveled with a 4.2 oz tube of toothpaste in my freedom baggie for a long time until a TSO at IAD on my honeymoon caught it and acted like she had saved the world from danger. The only reason she caught it was that the baggie got extra examination because my wife's and my freedom baggies ended up in the same bin, and she thought she was catching someone trying to take 2 1-quart bags, which I suppose would have been an even bigger catch. :rolleyes:

TSA appears to be completely incapable of detecting liquid packed in ampules. I no longer bother to declare it.

My wife consistently forgets to remove a small canister of pepper spray from her purse before we fly. It's less than 1oz. and not bagged, but it's definitely designed to "produce a powerful ballistic stream" (according to the manufacturer).

The first couple of times this happened, we both freaked out a little - now, we just sort of laugh in disbelief that TSA missed it again. Granted, she doesn't travel with me all that much, but this has happened at least half a dozen times or so.

My results
 

When I fly I take with me:

- liquids not in a 3-1-1 baggie and not removed from my carry-on,
- screwdriver,
- knife

I've carried the above on every flight I've taken for the past 4-5 years. I fly on average one trip every other week.

I'm still waiting for TSA to detect any of the above.

You allowed that?

In all the times I have declared my over 3.4 oz. contact lens solution bottle, not once has it been further tested.

I also travel with a knifeless tiny swiss army penknife. To show you how long I have been doing that, I had even rounded the edges of the scissors when only blunt-tip scissors were allowed. I would say about a third of the time it is looked at. And I had a eerily similar experience where the "TSO who bag checked it scolded me that I'll have problems with it every time and I should present it specially and separately before the x-ray." Sometimes they may miss it and perhaps other times the x-ray operator realizes that either it doesn't have a knife on it, or the "weapon" is rather inconsequential, and lets it through.

On my past eight flights, all in the past three months, I never took my freedom baggie out of my bag, and nobody seemed to notice. On one flight, I brought a keychain-sized mult-itool (Leatherman Squirt) through, and nobody seemed to notice. I mailed it home to avoid having it confiscated. On one flight, I didn't have any proof of identification, and I ended up in jail for almost a day and a half.

December 26th, 2009:
LAX TSA failed to detect a ColdSteel Recon1 Tactical knife (4" blade, tanto shaped) in my rollaboard. I didn't even know it was there! I must have forgotten to take it out after my last road trip (drove SFO-LAX-SFO to get my lady to her LAX-SVO SU plane).
I only found it out at home in Moscow when unpacked my stuff. Needless to say, I was a bit confused..)

I didn't want to, but she rushed with the laptop bag before I could protest, while other TSO was handsearching my other bag (with expensive cameras and lenses in it). I was still shoeless and taking care of my other stuff and cameras. Laptop was still in a bin close to me. Laptop bag contained a brand new 1 Terabyte portable hard drive and a GPS (these items valued at $360, also my brand new laptop bag for which I had paid $100 the day before!!!). But I didn't want to run after her shoeless and pretty much clothesless. It took more than 5 minutes to see my laptop bag again. This episode at LAX was 10 times more painful than security at YVR going to the US, but my 2 bottles of hand & body lotion managed to slip past. Amazing.

Any tools of greater length than 7 inches are forbidden. Not more than 4 inches. If the TSO missed the bullets, well that's pretty bad.

I'm sure you're a ninja as well.

This NPR story is interesting, Guns, Tumors And The Limits Of The Human Eye:

Hat tip Schneier's "Limits of Visual inspection":


This would give some scientific justification for the TIP program.

So, TIP-wise and research-wise, packing "targets" in your bags might actually improve the odds of TSA catching its mythical <1-in-a-billion terrorist. Rather than feel bad when some TSO chides me for forgetting a bottle of water, I'll consider it my way to help "ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce".

Lets hope we can keep this thread reasonably on target...

Last Month, I flew ROC-IAD-PHX.

ROC TSA hassled me about an empty water bottle but missed the claw hammer in my backpack.

Hmmm... I wonder if that's what that big study at the end of the year was about... :confused:

What is with this freedome bag crud?

should be called what it is " HIMMLER BAG" :mad::confused:

My partner took a pocket knife with knife through TPA-LGW-EDI without anyone (or him!) noticing.

We were surprised to find it in his bag when we got home, thinking it had been checked. More surprising that it evaded both US and UK checkpoints!

BTW - "freedom baggy" - is that the real name, or are you guys just taking the mick?

Definately taking the mick.

That's the more ironic name. It used to be called a "kippy bag" after IdiotBoy, also because one of the members here wrote "Kip Hawley Is An Idiot" on his baggy and was jacked up by a TSO drunk on power.

Within this story is another link at the bottom that tells about a machine they are looking at that see's INSIDE body cavities. Here we go. That is going too far. As it is the Nude-O-Scope is way too invasive. People will revolt if they bring in this machine. I will be the first in line. This really makes me mad. I could feel my blood pressure rising as I read it. Ok, women of childbearing age, if you use tampons forget about your privacy. Are they trying to slip this machine through the back door hoping the American public are too stupid to get it? :mad::mad:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...22499686&ps=rs