I will be transiting DFW in Jan. on my way to MCI and while I understand DFW is very good about NOT needing to pass thru security again as a thru connecting pax I am concerned about this random gate screening I have read about.
1. Is this a common occurrance or is it rare?
2. If a person should decline gateside random screening will they be allowed to leave or are they subject to arrest and/or fine?
I figure DFW is about 8hr from MCI so if selected I believe I would leave and drive if allowed to do so without legal issues. I also have relatives in DFW so stayin there overnite would not be an inconvenience.
I look forward to advice board members can give regards this issue.

I can't answer your question other than to say that I've never seen random screening at the gate at DFW. But, if I was picked I would ask what they think they missed.

TSA is worried that while in the secure area that perhaps you pulled a rabbit out of yer butt.

Per the rules of entering the secure area that all persons and personal affects are subject to search at any time.

I know that BITD people used to ask if the gate screening was mandatory and if they answered no they would just continue on. Savvy travelers would just watch to see if the smurfs set up shop and then would just want until they had a victim and then proceed.

DFW is my home airport. I've never had to deal with a gate screening here. I think I saw it at a gate once as I was walking by, but I'm not sure if they were actually screening anyone... MCI on the other hand was nothing but gate screening the last time I had to go thru there. (a very long time ago.)

Wouldn't this just "prove" that the TSA doesn't trust their own procedures by doing this? If you check at the security line, check while going through the line, the airline has checked you when checking in, how many times do they need to check? Doesn't really instill any confidence in their procedures now does it?

Wish the media would get a hold of THIS one!

Just had it on Thursday on United 900 from San Francisco to Frankfurt. Both the TSA AND CBP were in action. The CBP was checking passports and asking questions about their travels. The TSA had a private screening booth set up for its own selectees.

Boarding was nightmarish, hot, and crowded. And I'm sure that they caught many evildoers. Good job, fellas! Our flight was delayed on the ground by what the captain described as "an airport procedure we have here."

I know I was "acting out," but I paid no eye contact to the CBP officer and snapped my passport back from him. In retrospect, a bad idea. But I had just waited forever in the 1K/First Class security line, and I had no interest further "security" procedures. At least the TSA was busy troubling someone else on the jetway, so I didn't undergo any bag or body inspections.

Incidentally, the gate areas for international departures are quite large. Why do all of this on a hot, crowded jetway. They could have taken care of passport inspections while everyone was lined up to board the flight.

1. In the big picture, totally random. In the smaller picture, it appears to be in hubs/gateways. Hubs are a difficult place to assert your power to leave, in that a large percentage of people aren't at home, or at their destination, and can't exactly just walk. If you see gate-searches for SFO-JFK, not many people are going to just say "forget it, I'll just drive".

2. The TSA's position regarding administrative searches appears to be "submit or leave", yet all of the publicity I've seen surrounding this is at the CP, not inside the sterile area. If someone stood their ground politely and firmly, I'd presume they'd have no legal recourse to do anything (unless refusing an administrative search is probable-cause or reasonable-suspicion to do an LE search, detainment, or arrest). Yet polite/civil doesn't get into the news (and no, I'm not advocating violent public disobedience, just making an observation!), and that's what brings this debate to the public forum. And there's always that $11k civil fine they can dangle over your head.

Interesting to see (at least) two threads on the same day talking about administrative searches inside the sterile area. The searches are going up, the awareness is going up, or both?

Screening at the gate (for domestic flights) is very rare and the majority of it is ID checks. I've also seen checking of carry-ons. I've never seen any pat-downs at gates any time recently. And I've had very long connecting times at DFW and spend most of it walking through the terminal. That doesn't mean it never happens, but means the chances of it happening to you are extraordinarily low.

As to what happens if you decline, signs say that you won't be allowed to fly: I doubt that it would go further than that because the legal basis for more in that situation is far shakier than declining follow-on searches at the checkpoing.

They were patting down at IAD when I went through a 4-5 weeks ago.

I recall a thread at least a couple of years ago dealing with gate searches. A bunch of us greybeards discussed this with a couple of screeners who used to post here as well as a couple of FT lawyers. From what I recall, what you suggested was correct, at least as we understood it:

A gate screening was a completely new screening and not a continuation of the screening at the gate. As such, your consent or non-consent started all over again. The TSA could not compel you to submit. After being determined to be a "suspicious person" because of your non-consent, and having your personal information extracted from you and recorded in an "incident report," you would be escorted out of the secure area of the airport.

We also agreed that this "new search" applied to clearing customs at an airport such as ATL and having to be searched simply to pass through the airport to go home. At that time, nobody (at least an FTer) had tried it yet. Someone successfully did this not too long ago, but not without all sorts of arrest threats and intimidation.

A couple of loose items remain from this latest TSA stunt:

1. Does an ID check at the gate constitute a new search? Can you refuse the ID check with the caveat of having to leave the secure area?

2. Nobody, as far as I know, has tried to refuse a gate screening/ID check and leave.

Seems to be a lot of reports of DC airports.

Yes, I think you are correct. I was based out of DCA last year and frequently flew DCA-JFK-DCA. I would have to say on as many as 50% of my flights (regional jets), TSA conducted additional "random" screening at the gate. Never saw it happening on the BOS/RDU regional flights or the MIA/ORD/DFW mainline flights. Just DCA-JFK, a significant percentage of the time.

The Gate Rapes are for checking for firearms left behind in bathrooms of LEO's.

Or those smuggled in my TSA officers.