I know you all want to be present when checked bags are searched. Would you, however, find a closed-circuit video feed from the search room to be a viable alternative? I ask this because my organization has said that it will always try to reconcile passengers with their bags before performing a search but that it might be necessary in some airports with non-cooperative architecture to install cameras. Also of note, they have said they reserve the right to search bags without the owners beind present in exceptional circumstances.

Yes, that would be a good alternative, particularly if the camera is able to capture & record the angles such that the screeners can not hide activity from the camera, like in the casinos.

If there is just a poor resolution camera that is angled poorly, and the screener can turn his/her back from the camera and hide the act of theft then it is still next to useless.

I can understand this, but the current TSA way of having carte blanc to do anything they want is NOT acceptable.

As for cameras, ditto to what the previous poster said.

That would be a great alternative, providing we get to lock our luggage afterward. I would never take their word for it that it was locked. I would need to see them do it.

ABSOLUTELY YES!!! In color, of course! However, I think there should be also a communication system such that the screeners and passengers can talk to the passenger. Obviously, there should be a method to have his/her keys transferred to/from the screeners. I'm also for pax being forced to watch in the presence of a police officer (or equivalent security official).

- Pat

[This message has been edited by Wiirachay (edited 09-14-2003).]

Interesting thing happened at a checked-bag inspection point at an airport in Canada today. The background: an American passenger arrived from the States and showed Customs his bag. They found several "prohibited items" (in this context it means prohibited as in not legal to posess anywhere in Canada), numchucks and throwing stars and such. He made no attempt at concealing so they told him they'd hold it there and he could take them back to the States when he flew out.
On the day he was to fly, Customs took his bag down to the check-in area with him and notified the screeners of what they were doing. The screeners checked the bag and, yup, of course there were still prohibited items in there. They called the RCMP. The RCMP arrived and told him he was breaking the law but that since he hadn't tried to conceal and had been co-operative that all they would do is seize his items.
To me it seems like the screeners over-stepped their authority (and in the meantime made the Customs inspectors look like idiots) by alarming on legally "prohibited" items but not items that were on the Transport Canada checked-baggage prohibited list. I'm in the process of going through the Aeronautics Act and some other documents to see what the law says on this matter.
I woulda been screwed in Britain last year if their screeners had acted this way as I accidentally brought a Leatherman with a >4" locking blade with me in my checked-bags.

Are you saying that the customs people gave him back the prohibited items when he presented himself on his way out of Canada and the items were then taken away by the security screeners shortly thereafter as being unlawful to posess in Canada? What a waste of time/effort!

Basically, yes, although it was the RCMP that actually took the weapons away (screeners alarmed them) and Customs didn't actually give him his stuff back, they escorted it to the check-in so that he didn't have access to them while on Canadian soil. I got the impression that the Customs people were trying to give the guy a break and perhaps bent the rules a bit. The screeners should have minded their own business. Once the RCMP was called they had no choice but to seize the items.