goalie

And in that case, the wallet should have been looked thru but as noted (with the bolding and enlarging mine)

Pesky Monkey

As noted, knives show up on the x-ray. The TSO was rooting through a wallet that already cleared the x-ray. (btw, knives are not a threat to airline security).

dan1431

Interestingly, I was surprised the TSA employee was honest, he could have said, I did see something and I am not sure what the police officer would have done.

As I see it, if he saw something I understand the need to clear it, but to simply root around something as important as a wallet just seems stupid and risky for the TSA employee singularly and the agency as a whole.

As a side note, I was talking with a friend who works for the FBI (as an accountant, not too sexy of a position) and he said that most FBI agents (that he talks with) feel that TSA employees should not have the title of Officer and instead should just be civil servants.

He said that by calling them officers it does lead to this kind of wallet searching behavior, if they feel they are law enforcement, than they have more rights than the common man.

Dan

Caradoc

How so? Their cameras never work when they show the TSA doing something wrong.

All they'd do is trot out that tired old chestnut about how "...TSA holds all of its employees to the highest professional and ethical standards and has zero tolerance for misconduct in the workplace..." and claim that the employee(s) in question were being "retrained."

I don't see much risk for the TSA or the individual screener just for rooting through someone's wallet, even if they took their driver's license and credit cards to make photocopies of them (which has happened!)

stifle

Disagree. They would trot out that tired old chestnut about how "the reports and statements the TSA has received indicate some inconsistencies with how the incident has been described".

Caradoc

Same thing. "We didn't see it therefore it didn't happen and the passenger must be lying because none of our professionalized and Federalized TSA employees would ever misbehave while in uniform (unless they're bribed, see a little girl they want to touch inappropriately, see something they want to steal, etc...)"

stifle

Indeed!

dan1431

Admittedly, I did not even think about that scenario, truth be told I was looking at it as I perceive it, now reading your posts I guess I was giving TSA too much credit.

Dan

Caradoc

S'OK. A majority of our elected legislators do exactly the same thing, which is how the TSA ends up getting funded again every budget session.

dan1431

Sadly, I am afraid you are correct! I want the US to be better, I truly do, but I am afraid that we fall on face (as a nation) all too often.

Interestingly, I tend to see the TSA as a bureaucracy, like any other US Gov't group and the problems/issues I and other experiences have more do with the way the US gov't operates as a whole rather than any one single agenda.

Dan