ORD "security" - grrr
 

I was flying CDG-ORD-MSN yesterday and had to clear security at ORD before making my connection. I've seen some pretty stupid things at ORD in the past (and I don't fly nearly as often as many FTers) but this simply burned my hide.

After waiting in a 20-minute line, I was ready to go through the walk-through thing (coat and shoes in bin with prescription cream and no other liquids, carryon bag on conveyer). I was signaled to walk through the walk-through thing, which I did with no alarm. The TSA guy told me to back up, pulled an Altoids can out of his pocket, set off the alarm and told me to walk through again, which I did with no alarm. He called for "Female assist, no alarm" and sent me to the pen to be groped, ordering me (no other term for it) to sit in a chair with my back to the conveyer where my bag and bin were.

When I saw my belongings coming through the xray, I stood up and said "Excuse me, sir, but those are my belongings and I want them within my sight and under my control." He ordered me to sit in another chair that faced the conveyer belt and called again for female assist.

As the "female assist" was still not appearing, I again said that I wanted my belongings within my sight and under my control. The female TSA person then showed up and I told her I wanted my belongings in front of me. A third TSA person (young male) started bringing my bin and bag over when the female barked at him to go back to the belt while she did the grope on me.

When she finished, I went to retrieve my property and the young guy said, apologetically, "I'm sorry, I was bringing you your things because I thought you alarmed." I said, "No alarm, they apparently needed to search me for entertainment."

I was clearly angry as I put my shoes and coat back on and a couple of other passengers asked what that was about. I said I must appear to be some sort of threat but that, if the TSA wasn't going to trust me, I certainly wasn't about to trust them with my property and that it really pisses me off to be treated like a criminal.

I suppose I should feel thankful they didn't escalate and call a LEO or worse but I don't. This was simply a ridiculous show of power-tripping and I (we all) deserve better and respectful treatment.

Thank you for allowing my vent.

morons :td: :mad:

if it was me, i would have asked for a tsa complaint form and when told they "didn't have any" :rolleyes:, i would have said, "that's ok, i'll use the one in my briefcase. may i see your name badge and i/d please".

Sorry to hear of the shameful treatment you suffered at the hands of the cowards in Chicago. I experienced similar treatment at the hands of an ORD moron a couple years ago.

It's incidents like this that led me to conclude early on that the formation of the TSA and its employ of former cops, washed-out cops, cop-wannabes and retired special forces military personnel was a huge victory for the terrorists - they wanted to disrupt our lives and they succeeded. In a much larger way than they could have ever imagined.

I guess we should be thankful that beatings with batons and flashlights don't routinely happen at the checkpoints. Small comfort, I know.

The Terrorism Support Agency and its employees have been very adept at carrying Osama's water for six years now.

you were probably pulled aside because the the tsa guy with the altoids deemed your clothing to be "non-form fitting".

your request to be within the line of sight of your property should have been met though, and the fact that the chair was pointed in the opposite direction implies that the supervisor in charge either:

a) has the checkpoint set up that way on purpose
b) has no idea how his checkpoint is set up
c) set up the equipment correctly, but was inadvertently moved, implying that:
d) the supervisor and/or screeners don't care that tsa's rules stipulate that all screening is done while passengers have positive visual control of all of their property

imo, your best course of action is to request a tsa comment card and mail it back to the address that's printed on the card. get the name of the person who denied you having visual control of your property, and the checkpoint location you were at. mailing these cards back, (rather than leaving them at the checkpoint), guarantees delivery to higher-ups who actually care about passenger rights/any other shortcomings at their airport.

and that whole altoid thing.... the machine probably froze and needed a reset to get the initial reading back to "0". causing another alarm, whacking the side, and kicking the thing all seem to work equally.

I do plan on filing a complaint and I did note the name of the TSA guy who was throwing his weight around.

As far as form-fitting, I dress comfortably on these long flights but certainly wasn't wearing anything baggy. The thing that might have made this more palatable was the attitude of the jacka** TSA guy who was monitoring the metal detector. Instead of just hollering for female assist and saying to me "Sit there" and pointing at a chair, a customer-service oriented action would be to explain why he was going to have me groped and asking me to please take a seat here. I know, too much to expect and I still would have been angry at being groped but I wouldn't have felt like I was being treated like a bad dog.

Funny how my clothing didn't cause any problems with security at MSN and CDG, only at ORD. My experience at each of these locations is pretty consistent - only at ORD have I encountered this kind of stupidity and rudeness. Do I feel safer with this kind of security? Hell no.

That makes me so:mad:to even read this. You did much better than I would've:td:

Here is my process when selected for secondary screening:

1) Ask that my belongings remain in my sight
2) Ask for a screening supervisor to be called to observe the screening
3) When the supervisor arrives, I ask for a private screening.
4) Let the TSA carry my belongings to the private screen area as SOP does not allow me to touch same until secondary screening is complete.

Whole process can take up to 20 minutes, but I have managed to pull at least three TSA personnel into one screening -- hopefully slowing the whole screeen process down such that TSA does not have the resources to perform secondaries on other passangers -- plus If I am not happy with the process I will ask for the screeening supervisor's supervisor.

Actually, I've had a few run ins with TSA in MSN, even though overall they're pretty chill. I was flying out one morning and my bag got pulled aside post-xray. The TSA screener glared at me and condescendingly asked "do you have anything in here I need to know about?" I said, "no, my bag should be good to go" as I show him my military ID. He says "really, are you sure about that?" as he starts rifling through my compartments. He proceeds to pull out one government issue butter knife that I forgot I had in my bag and waves it in my face (it's a daily use bag so I had a set of silverware from the mess hall in there for barracks use). He says "look at this deadly weapon you have in here, you want to explain this?" I said "it's a rounded end, dull government issue butter knife that's permissable under your own regulations. what's the issue?" He says, "look at this serrated edge, I can't let this through, it's a deadly weapon that you're trying to smuggle past my checkpoint." I replied, "really? have you ever taken combatives and if so, are you really going to tell me that this dull butterknife is an effective weapon? that's government property you're holding right there and it's on you if you're going to steal it" I was about to ask for the guys badge number to put him on report but I had to catch my flight so I just let him have the butter knife. Ironic that a federal employee is now, in a sense, liable for theft of Army property. :rolleyes: I truly despise the TSA.

Oh, and while I'm at it, I also hate this pseudo-behavioral analysis BS they do at ID check. "Where are you going today?" I dunno lady, why don't you look at my f*ing boarding pass and tell me? Of course, the last time this happened was at IAH A where the TSA in question had just threatened the guy in front of me with security after he dared step two feet past her hold line. Great representatives of America, the TSA. :rolleyes:

What jerkish behavior on his part. What's wrong with merely politely telling you that, as silly as it may sound, butter knives with serrated edges are actually prohibited items and giving you your options? Why act like a goon?

My feelings exactly. It certainly doesn't take much time or effort to do this.

Well we found one TSA person that the whole "Officer" way to serious.

My reply is, "I don't discuss my travel plans." (Verbatim.)

:rolleyes:
at a butter knife being a deadly weapon.

I recently noticed that I've inadvertently been carrying a folding knife through checkpoints (including ORD) for several months now. I stuck it in a seldom-used compartment in my camera case while hiking awhile back and forgot about it. I was tempted to leave it in there to see whether anybody would ever notice.

During this timeframe, I had a TSAer at PHX complain that I didn't remove the camera case from my carry-on for closer inspection, but he apparently didn't notice the knife.

That is a brilliant comment. I am going to steal it.

The reat of this thread...

I fly through ORD twice a week. I always use either the premier line for UA near the GS entrance or the lines between A and B. Anyway, I have to say, that I have never had a problem in these lines, ever. If I think back to my domestic flight hassels, it has been over two years since I have been singled out. I really do not see nearly as many people getting pulled to the side.

The single biggest delay in security is simply people lack of organization before hitting the security point. Come on, have your metal removed before you hit the WTMD.

Between my scanfast bag and my ScottEvest jacket, it takes me about 10 seconds to have my shoes in the bin (Stupid rule), jacket with all of my gadgets in it on top of my shoes, laptop bag unfolded, and carry on bag following it through the x-ray machine. it comes through the end and I grab my shoes and everything else as it makes its way through and I am on my way. I still have regular business travelers look at my laptop bag in shock as I slide it through the x-ray.

If I had a dollar for every frequent flier who admonished me to remove my laptop from my computer bag before inserting it into the machine, I would book into business instead of playing the upgrade game. :p

What exactly are you so angry about? What does an altoids tin have to do with anything. By the way, it's a secondary search, not a grope. :rolleyes: They found someone of the same sex for you and it's not like they grab private parts.

They let you sit facing your bags. You could see your things and in doing so they accommodated your request.

You fly a lot and you post here a lot. You should know that they can do a secondary on you at leisure. Go ahead and complain if you want, but your complaint is that they did a secondary search on me which they are allowed.

Given how much this bothers you, perhaps flying really isn't for you. You could try driving or the train.

From what I've seen, the biggest delays are in the people in the lineup in front of me who either don't know the rules, don't really care, don't try to do things quickly or try to pick arguments with the screeners.