My first pat down....
 

Last month I flew Brisbane to NYC stopping in LA. After reading many threads on these forums about the potential health hazards of the machines I had long ago decided I’d opt out .I had no idea what I was letting myself in for.
Feeling not particularly bright and breezy after a 13hr flight and what seemed like a 13hr wait in line for immigration, I was anxious about making my connection to NYC. By the time I reached security my flight was boarding. I put my belongings on the conveyor belt and was invited to stand in the yellow square by the TSA. Not that he actually asked me to step forward as such, he just beckoned me with his finger, something I find extremely rude. I stayed put and told him I wanted to opt out. He then shouted 3 or 4 times “opt out” pointing his finger at me. He gestured for me to step back, I guessed to wait for the TSA who would carry out the pat down. I refused telling him I would stay where I was so I could keep an eye on my belongings at the end of the belt. I wanted to tell him to stop wagging his finger at me but knew I was too tired for a fight so let it go.
After only a couple of minutes a female TSA appeared had a few words with the first one and then approached me from the side of the machine. Without a single word she beckoned me with her finger to follow her. Tired or not this was one finger wagging too far for me and I completely ignored her. She took a step closer and beckoned me again. I stood my ground and told her that if she wanted me to follow any instructions from her she needed to verbalise those instructions. Do these people have any training at all about how to communicate with the general public? I was incensed and now fully awake and alert!
After some verbal to-ing and fro-ing, her saying she did speak and that I didn’t hear her, me saying she didn’t speak and she knew she didn’t, she led me to a table behind security. By this time another TSA was collecting my belongings from the belt behind me. She began to explain the procedure but I was busy trying to keep my eyes on my bags and told her so. I asked her to wait until all my belongings were on the table in front of me. I’ve read too many threads about light fingered airport employees and had no intention of allowing myself to be distracted while some stranger was handling my belongings. By now it was clear that she and I weren’t destined to be buddies.
I had already noticed that she had put on a new pair of gloves and after she had explained the procedure I gave permission for the pat down. From what I had read on these forums and particularly since she and I had already clashed horns, I was expecting a particularly thorough pat down. On the contrary it was what I can only describe as a superficial frisk! She patted both arms and legs up to about mid thigh only, used the back of her hands to pat just below my collar bones, one cursory pat below each breast, again with the back of her hands, a pat down of my upper back and that was it. What a pointless exercise on so many levels! I could easily have been hiding all manner of things around my body that she would never have detected.
By this time I could hear the final boarding call and was relieved to have seemingly got off lightly compared to some of the accounts I’ve read and was waiting to get on my way. She swabbed her gloves and put the swab in the machine. To my surprise and her obvious glee, the monitor began flashing in red letters explosives detected! She looked like the cat that got the cream and before I knew it 2 more TSA’s appeared, I suppose to help with the terrorist. She kept repeating to them, “explosives, explosives”,” she swabbed positive”, like some deranged half whit.
Since I knew I didn’t have any explosives on my person and as far as I was aware had never come in contact with them, my only concern was that this was going to cause me to miss my connection.
One of the TSA took me over to my belongings and did a search of my bags, found nothing suspicious and told me I would be taken to a private room where a different TSA would be along shortly to carry out an enhanced pat down. I told him it needed to be shortly as final boarding had been called. He said he would call them and they would hold the flight. Really??
I moved to gather up my belongings and was told in no uncertain terms not to touch anything and someone would collect them and bring them to the room. Great! Another stranger handling my bags.... I insisted that my bags didn’t leave my sight.
I was left to wait in the room with the TSA who did the fIrst pat down. .An uncomfortable silence ensued so I attempted to break the atmosphere with a little chit chat. I asked her about her job and how she felt about having to carry out pat downs. She said she didn’t really want to talk about that but that she wasn’t paid enough. I told her that there were most likely sufficient menial jobs out there that were suitable for the poorly educated, less intelligent members of society and that she should consider applying. That went straight over her head and the silence resumed.
The enhanced pat down TSA arrived, explained the procedure and carried out the pat down. More or less the same as the first but with a check inside my waistband. She went off to swab her gloves and the uncomfortable silence resumed. After about 5 minutes she returned and told me I could leave. So, what on earth was all that about I asked. She shrugged her shoulders and looked kind of blank. Had I not by this point been convinced I would miss my connection I would have requested some explanation but since I needed to run I picked up my stuff and made for the door. As I was going, the enhanced one asked me where I was flying to, when I told her NYC, she looked at her colleague and said. Flights to NYC don’t leave from this terminal do they? I knew better and when she offered to take my boarding pass and go check I told her I would take my chances and go to my gate. Thank you very much. Unbelievable!
What a complete waste of time

thanks for posting and for opting out. you were fortunate not to run into retaliation or screeners with wandering hands. esp wrt to the false positive. amazing. the TSA screener in the youtube video goes all over the body of the six year old including sex organs in that situation and you are lightly frisked in the false positive reso rubdown.

The screening clerks in that location must be running into a LOT of false positives, I'd surmise.

You should not have gone into the private room. Insist that any "resolution" pat down be done in public.

And, IIRC, this is the first time we have read about a private room pat down - which obviously wasn't anything more than is done in public every day.

I saw a private room pat down post yesterday but cannot recall where; I'll have to go look.

My fear is the private room + skirt wearing, and what that would entail.

OP, a few comments:

- I too avoid responding to those finger wagging gestures (just as I refuse to respond to the contract security in MUC who yell 'Ma'am!' at me and follow up with some English command) It is rude to treat adults like dogs but I pointed that out here before and at least one TSO said that there was nothing wrong with what I saw in a photo posted here.

- your first may have been superficial, but do be aware that you can have 20 pat downs with no issue, and the 21st could be the one which leaves you with bruises or touches you inappropriately

- did you ask for a glove change before the pat down?

And a final request - I realise that posting from a mobile device often messes up the format, but if you add paragraphs to your original post it may be easier to read. I will admit that I found it hard to read and may have skipped over key items, and I think that because you are female and had a private room pat down it is important that this is read.

So it seems totally unnecessary to have in a private room... :rolleyes:


A family member opted out recently, and clerk got all pissed when he told him to change gloves and use a new swab. Also glad to hear that the OP was not hassled because of that simple request.

Unless, of course, you're a TSA Airport Security Screener with something to hide.

Want to point out a few security lapses I noted in this post:

1. Looks like the passenger was not asked to go thru the WTMD. Therefore:
2. The superficial pat-down could very easily have missed an old-fashioned metallic weapon
3. Once again, a foreign visitor was coerced into a private room with a belligerent TSA employee. If this visitor were less informed or a language barrier were present, this could have been an absolute disaster, with no video record.
4. Once again, the ETD alarms on something that is not an explosive. These things are so non-specific and/or unreliable, I have already heard at least one TSA employee publicly state that they don't trust the machines. Thus, an alarm doesn't trigger panic. It just triggers another ineffective pat-down. No one in the transaction actually believes it's a real possibility there could be an explosive.

So let's review. We (collectively, as a nation) have harassed someone who chose to visit us (and spend money here)... We did this so that we could REDUCE the security of air travel in this country.

Duh.

unbelievable indeed. putting aside the tsa charade, when trying for a tight connection, what did you expect to gain arguing with the tsa girl, who while sounding unpleasant, didn't do anything wrong (except for maybe a half-assed pat down), and certainly wasn't as rude and obnoxious as you were?

What's with all the finger wagging screeners? :rolleyes:

There's only one person allowed to do that when I'm traveling, and she works for DL. :D

Resolution pat downs are done in the private screening room. The only other choice is to not fly.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.5.0.138 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

There is at least one report on FT of a victim refusing to go to the orivate room for the resolution grope and winning. I think I also recall it took a cop's intervention.

:td:

Why?

What possible purpose does this serve other than to intimidate passengers or spare TSA from embarrassment over it's actions?

Anything TSA wishes to do to me should be done in full view of the public. If they demand that I drop my pants (and assuming I agree to it instead of leaving the airport), it should be in public.

Allowing a stranger to force you to a private room is absurdly stupid. There is enormous risk to both the passenger and the TSA employees if one decides to make accusations against the other. Private rooms should be an option for sensitive passengers, but never required by TSA.

:td:

This is the reason why TSA wants you in a private room for a resolution pat down:

http://www.aclu.org/technology-and-l...ptions-airport

Yeah, unbelievable. The behavior exhibited by the clerk was totally uncalled for. :td:

I agree. As was the behavior of the op. But the 'clerk' is not here so I can't ask her about her behavior- the op on the other hand... :D