Just because you don't know it's there...
 

...doesn't mean it isn't.

So I'm hanging out today at the checkpoint, operating the x-ray machine; it's a slow day at the airport, but since I'm the vigilant type I don't get easily distracted by having nothing to do. Bored to tears, sure, but I see through the thin film of those tears on my eyes to ensure there are no prohibited items (a la weapons, explosives, or incendiaries) in the passengers' accessible property, and therefore help ensure another day of uneventful travel for the nation's flying public.

...Right. Too much melodrama. Sorry about that.

Anyway, I call a bag check and another TSO rolls on over to my side. I point out the item in question (which I won't tell you about right now, because that spoils the surprise), he eyes it dubiously, and then takes the passenger's property. In this case, it's a folder (demonstration piece only, not an actual example of what it specifically looked like).

For the record: I am a European-American male (or "white guy" if you prefer). The bag checker is also a white guy. The passenger is an African-American male (or "black guy" if you prefer). We are, obviously, in Alabama.

The bag checker informs the gentleman of the need to search his property, and the guy acknowledges that need. The bag checker makes a quick leaf-through of the folder looking for anything obvious, didn't find anything, took some kind of paper tablet out, and re-ran everything through the x-ray.

The item was still there.

The bag checker took the folder back to the search table, and now removed everything from the folder. At this point, the gentleman was getting a little... irritated. I'm hardly a BDO with their super-apparently-awesome-but-totally-secret behavioral detection training, but even I could see that by his posture.

(Before anyone asks, no, there was no-one else coming through, so my attention wasn't needed to be focused on the x-ray screen at this time.)

Everything was run back through the x-ray again. The folder laid out open in a bin, everything else in another bin. The item was still visible in the folder on the x-ray screen.

I called the supervisor to let him know the situation, and gave him a brief run-down on what was going on, and my own personal take on what was likely the case. I would be proven right in just a matter of minutes.

The STSO took over the search, took the folder and the bin-of-stuff back to the table, spoke to the man briefly, and began his search (originally I described what he did in detail, but decided that it probably tread a bit too close to the SSI line). The gentleman was, at this point, shaking his head with a scowl on his face, and made a comment. I didn't catch the first part of it, but the second part, as his voice grew more agitated (and therefore a touch louder) was "...because I'm black."

Mmmmmmmmm'kay.

From the lining of the gentleman's leather folder (no easy task, but to describe what he actually did would be to describe his search, which, again, treads close to that SSI point), the STSO drew out a box cutter blade, one half of it wrapped in tape.

(Whether or not a razor blade could feasibly be used to destroy an airplane in transit is immaterial for the purposes of this incident: it's still a prohibited item, classified as a "weapon.")

The gentleman's demeanor instantly changed. In the end, he left the razor with us and went off about his way after exchanging a laugh with the STSO over something I couldn't quite make out. I found out later that, at the onset of his own search, when the man was informed by the STSO that there's possibly a razor blade inside his folder's backing, he dismissed it entirely as ridiculous.

Yes, technically, this could have been considered "artfully concealed" but all parties involved on our end took this to have been an unintentional act (another time this happened was with a diving rig taken through a checkpoint, with some kind of short knife that seemed to actually be the base of a gauge). That being the case, we didn't treat it any differently than we would have any other kind of prohibited item that isn't an obvious threat (i.e.; gun, bomb, etc).

Believe it or not, this is not the first time a "razor in the liner" has been found at Huntsville. I personally found one once, squirreled away in the lining of a rather nice briefcase that had factory-level stitching (which suggested to me that it wasn't a case of placing it there and then repairing the seam). To get that one out, I actually had to take a pair of scissors and cut open the seams, but I made sure that the passenger was fully aware of what was going on and got his full consent before doing it.

I guess you could call this a factory defect, the losing of a cutting razor in the seam of an item and then sealing it up.

Anyway, the moral of the story is to remember that just because you don't know it's there, doesn't mean that it isn't (I think the negatives equal out there. Jim, is my math right? :D). Not every bag check is performed because we felt like singling you out to pick on you, or due to retaliation in some way to some kind of perceived slight. Believe it or not, we actually can just be about our job.

I will now return to my recluse-like ways. Have fun.

(P.S.: I checked at work the other day when I first heard about it. FlyerTalk was NOT blocked from the computers at work)

You let him go? This is a real failure of the entire TSA system. 9/11 should have shown you that bad guys act in concert. The fact that you can't act on that, for very practical reasons, show that your entire mission is a joke.

Oh, yes, and if we had him arrested and/or fined, then we'd be (a) power-tripping, (b) without common sense, (c) overreacting, (d) out-of-control, or (e) all of the above.

(Did I miss any, Spiff? :D)

Ah, well. Can't make everyone happy.

How you remove the lining of a leather folder to reveal what is beneath it is somehow SSI? It's something the traveler witnessed, how SSI can this be?

I feel so much safer now:rolleyes:

probably totally unrelated to the OP's story... but it reminded of a car that I used to have in the early 1990's. I bought it new, with only 5 or 10 miles on the odometer. The next day, I started taking the car's interior apart. Don't worry, I was a car stereo nut back then. Just doing a custom aftermarket stereo install on my new Caddy. :) After I removed the two front seats and all the carpeting underneath, I found a fake alligator-leather wallet under the wirings. :( There was no ID, only several dollar bills and a library card for Detroit Public Library. I still remember the name, Morris Cato, embossed on the library card. (hard to forget because it somehow sounded like Morris The Cat to me, and probabaly those who are old enough to remember the cat food commercials)

Took me two seconds to realize that it must have been a GM worker who dropped it while assmebling my new Caddy! It was almost $20 in one dollar bills, so the autoworker was probably a frequent visitor to the local strip joint? The library card probably meant that he liked to read...?

Long story short... that Caddy was the worst I ever owned in terms of quality. :td:

Oh, as for the money, I'm ashamed to say that I kept it.

Maybe he possessed secret lining removal ninja skills?

Wonderful. You found a prohibited item that had very probably been left in the folder at its manufacture through your diligence and perseverance. That doesn't mean TSA or you have come close to offsetting the harm your agency has inflicted on the aviation industry and the traveling public at large.

Every day TSA exists in its current form is another day of victory for terrorists.

Congratulations on finding a non-credible "prohibited item".

To what address would you like your fish shipped as we are unable to throw you a fish in person?

First of all, nice to see that some common sense was applied and this guy was not detained, further harassed, or arrested. (Too bad the woman in Florida with the leather bookmark didn't have the same experience.)

Since you seem to feel that the act was unintentional (which I agree with; like another has said, sounds like something left over from manufacture), you should also be accepting of the fact that the passsenger was upset about the process and delay. He knew he had not packed any illegal items (and you seem to agree since you believe it was unintentional), so it's totally understandable why he was upset.

But finally, enough with the "too close to SSI" line. :rolleyes: How can a manual search of a folder be SSI? Do TSOs have SSI bionic x-ray eye implants or something? :rolleyes: What actually seems more likely to me is that this "SSI" procedure was destructive to the item (e.g., TSO cut the lining of the folder, etc.) and that TSA doesn't want to admit that they do destructive screening on passenger property. It has been proven time and time again that government bureaucrats use information classification to conceal embarrassing information that has nothing to do with national security but that they don't want to see released.

Yes, your math is correct. And you even showed your work, so ... full credit for you. :D

Unfortunately, the problem with your employer's policies regarding SSI is that it's largely impossible to know, for certain, whether or not retaliation is occurring. When questions regarding how, or why, certain procedures are performed cannot be answered, one is left to speculate. Sometimes, those speculations are correct. How often ... well, no-one can say for certain.

This is one of the few aspects of "security theater" that could actually be positive for TSA. The term is often used pejoratively here, in references to policies that give the appearance of security without the substance. But one can turn the whole thing around, and develop policies & procedures that give the appearance of security along with actually being secure.

I suspect that if more information regarding screening was made available to passengers during the process, you'd have less accusations leveled against screeners. But that decision is made well above your pay grade.

Unfortunately, we've seen this contradiction before. Just because something happens publicly doesn't mean that it's still not SSI for TSA employees. So, we all can talk about it all we want ... but Dean can't participate. (Other federal agencies are just as fouled up in this regard, so it's certainly not a unique failing of TSA.)

The fact that TSA refuses to take appropriate steps to eliminate retaliatory seraches is an outrageous affront to every law abiding air traveller.

I can't include enough ^ to the above. TSA's management is incredibly stupid in many ways, but this might be their top failing. Instead of being open and transparent about what they do and why they do it, they adopt inane marketing slogans and hide behind SSI.

You and we well know that BDO training is a mishmash of unscientific nonsense. Please don't pretend otherwise.

Well, at least we know TSA employees will not be stuck playing solitaire. :p



That's what the guys at the GM plant near YNG refer to as a Monday build ('cause they guys on the line are hung over from the weekend). :D

Wow halls, the blood must be running ankle deep at the other checkpoints around the country.

What harm? Was there not screening before the TSA? Were there not X-ray’s, walk through metal detectors, hand wanding, pat-downs, prohibited items? These things have been taking place for a very long time, but now that it’s a government agency doing the screening its harm to the flying public?

Where do we mail your fish?