Every time you get a patdown, make sure to ask for a private room. Why? Well, in addition to the fact that it saves you from having your boss or family watch someone grabbing your boobs, it puts the screeners on notice that you are extremely sensitive about being abused or humiliated and so they will follow their own rules more acutely.

Another bonus: if everyone did it, we could cause some serious problems for the TSA. Here, from the screener's mouth:

"Now seriously it's very difficult to have all pat downs down privately.
first most airports don't have the space, we have a tiny curtain divider, to be use by males/females/wheel chair, religious reasons etc.

so if a private pat down is performed, we'll have a line at the checkpoint then another one at the private room, how do we control this and how do we make sure the passenger is not contaminated with other people. "


Okay, so airports don't have space or personnel to privately screen everyone. Make it less convenient for the TSA to abuse us: assert your right to a private screening. Obstructionism is the name of the game.

Excellent idea! You could start your very own form of civil disobedience. In fact, as a man, one could also request a private pat down for reasons of religion or modesty too.

Disagree - I don't think 'obstructionisim is the name of the game'.

I have problems w/ some of TSA's policies & will f/u on that in the appropriate manner, either right then or after.

And if I thought they were 'pushing the envelope' on their patdowns then I would obviously not be a happy camper & would thus deal w/ that appropriately, probably right then & certainly after.

But I've experienced pat-downs that aren't the 'extreme' that GradGirl seems to experience every time, so I can't quite go along w/ her head off to the private room if only to cause them problems that she wants to do.

Having said that, if it works for her & you, go for it. My goal is to get on the plane w/ the least amount of problems/issues, whether caused by me, TSA or airline personnel.

Cheers. Sharon

Sounds good...

Hold up the line for those behind you.

How about stopping unnecessary shoe removal, as pointed out by your bosses in DC?

My concern with requesting a private room is that any violation of the patdown policy, i.e., plam of hand and fingers, would be harder to prove, unless you ask for a witness of your choosing.

Pointed out by my bosses in DC??? I don't know about other airports, but at CVG, we're doing exactly what DC told us to do in the first place.

Are the private screening rooms videotaped just like the main checkpoint? At least at DCA they were. You are not allowed to have your own witness in a private room. But there is one screener and one observer (an extra screener). There may be an exception to the rule in the case of children; I think I may have heard that parents can witness the private screenings of their kids, but I don't know what the age cutoff is for that. What of it, screeners? Do you get to private screen teenagers without a parent witness?

I'm wondering if taking the time to file a complaint form every time you are patted down will have more of an effect than requesting a private screening.

It might even equally delay the line if that is the goal.

Based on this recent thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=377194
demanding to see a LEO and filing a police report if you feel you were inappropriately touched may also be very effective. And very confusing to the TSA who (at least in this case) seemed unable to comprehend that the pax might want to see a LEO.

I worry that all a private screening does is make it so that the rest of the public doesn't see what the TSA is doing.

Why not do both? I think we should be filling out a complaint form with every unnecessary sexual touching incident. I admit that I have a preference for the private screening because I want to make the point to screeners that this is not at all normal to be touching a woman's breasts in full view of scores of people of both genders.

As for making people aware that the TSA is molesting passengers, I think that newspaper articles, editorials, and letters to the editor can do that job.

But if you do it in public and cry foul, there is a video camera recording what is happening. And if they do indeed break the rules, you can refer to that as evidence. They'll likely "push" you into leaving, but you should fight it. File an assualt complaint if necessary, use the video as your evidence.

Yeah, that's the point. When the window dressing and violations of our rights and privacy become inconvenient, it will force us to have a serious discussion about security. Until then, people just get more and more complacent with having fewer rights and less privacy.

If we want to speed up the line, we can just stop with the harassment and window dressing.

No, they're not. I doubt they're videotaped in more than a handful of airports.

If this starts to happen you could run into the "MAY" word in the screening process where it says TSA MAY honor your request. IT doesnt say that we have to.

That's really amazing, eyecue, thanks for the heads up. It would be a great media event to have someone request a private screening and be denied.

The TSA website says only, "Screeners are required to offer private screening to passengers who are subject to additional screening. If you are not offered private screening you have the option to request a private screening location."

Notice that TSA nowhere promises that you will get a private screening location if you request it. This stuff gets scarier and scarier the closer you look.

Hmm. This could be a real mess at MCI. The same airport that's home to the Shoe Fetishes has an awkward set-up where each set of 3 gates shares a single glassed-in security area. Once you get through the gates there's not much there except the metal detectors, etc. If everyone made subject to secondary screening because they refused to remove their shoes requested a private search, it could really gum up the works.

Wish I had the brass ovaries to try it.