Forty something white male business traveler. ;)

well, so much "for being brown" ;)

No, but looking at your watch, appearing nervous, checking pockets for tickets, etc. might be a signal to the hyper-vigilant BDOs. Most business travelers run on a tight schedule and want things to go smoothly.:D

Yes you are right. If there were no female TSO's did the TSA not expect any female passengers? In any case, a random process of selection would not know gender of a person. What they have is an arbitrary process. There is no randomising process in place. Human mind does not not randomise. They select people arbitrarily, based on their perceptions, profiling sense and biases. That's why you see that an overhwelming passengers pulled out by CBP are Middle Eastern looking ( Lebanese, Algerians, Iranians South Asians), Chines/Japanese looking (includes Vietnamese, Koreans, Filipinos), Blacks (includes Blacks from Africa, the U.K. the Carbbean etc) and a touch of Whites, if at all.

Yes you are right. If there were no female TSO's did the TSA not expect any female passengers? In any case, a random process of selection would not know gender of a person. What they have is an arbitrary process. There is no randomising process in place. Human mind does not not randomise. They select people arbitrarily, based on their perceptions, profiling sense and biases. That's why you see that an overhwelming number if passengers pulled out by CBP for luggage inspection on arrival, are Middle Eastern looking ( Lebanese, Algerians, Iranians South Asians), Chines/Japanese looking (includes Vietnamese, Koreans, Filipinos), Blacks (includes Blacks from Africa, the U.K. the Carbbean etc) and a touch of Whites, if at all.

Of course not. Sometimes, @#$! happens. People go on vacation, people get sick, people get called away from their normal assigned duties for some urgent matter behind the scenes, people go on break, and so on. There are a number of reasonable innocent explanations.

First, let's be careful ... we were discussing TSA, not CBP, where issues differ.

Second, TSA is at least somewhat aware of the issues involving bias in selection. Hence, the stories that get propagated about grandparents and infants getting randomly/arbitrarily selected for enhanced screening. Some of the TSOs who post here have described the way they choose selectees, and most of their techniques are bias-free (usually, "next-in-line" or some variation thereof).

Third ... yes, bias happens. Of course, there doesn't appear to be any accusation of bias in this incident. (Other than not having any female TSOs available for secondary screening, of course.)

I'm surprised that there isn't more outcry.

1. SFO seems to be the only airport in the US doing this.
2. The pat-downs are applying only to men, and are not based on alarm resolution or "bulky items."

It sounds intrusive and pointless.
Does this bother anyone else?

[QUOTE=jkhuggins;12121807]Yes, I know$#it happens. But did the TSA know there were going to be o female terrorists that day? ;) $$it happens but we count them them to protect us! They have absolute power on who gets through. They MUST screen every one, even an ex-president or another country on foreign soil, but here, they choose not to pat-down 50% of the population. That shows pat-down is not considered, by TSA to be a necessary or an effective technique and that it has nothing to do with security. It's all a show. The TSO's must be seen doing something all the time. It does not matter what it is.


Yes I know, but profiling issues are similar, even though they have different mandates and different jobs.

TSA is more aware and criticised more because their exposure is far greater than that of CBP agents. Passengers travelling domestically, never have an encounter with them. TSA harasses every one, even many whites, Hence the anger directed at TSA gets more light.
If TSA had not been subjected to the extra scrutiny, it would be even less responsive than it is.
I did not say there was any bias. In this incident. What I am saying is not screening one gender at all, and crening 2/3rds of the other gender shows
1. It's not random in this case.
(It's never random. They try to hide their bias under random selection, when it's not. It's arbitray, not random. The two are not the same That is a corollary.)

2. That pat-down is not necessary. The pat-downs they did perform, added nothing to the security. It was simply a shpw at best and harassment of passengers in reality.

NO BIAS has been alleged in this incident by me. :rolleyes:

It is based on who is avalable at the checkpoint. When there was a female working the WTMD, she was doing the patdowns herself and males were partially "exempted".

She pulled one male for every five or so females and then had to call over a male private TSO to do the 7-second patdown. I was the lucky one-- I am white and in my 20's (still, thank god!).

It is random-- not gender biased-- there is simply a practical element. The would-be male terrorist could just go into the line with the female TSO and know that his chances of a random patdown are much less-- but not zero.

Hence, another layer. :rolleyes:

SFO only?: Anecdotal evidence here says yes.
Gender biased?: No.
Stupid and pointless?: Yes.
Bothers anyone else?: Yes.

but the bdo's can't be super vigilant ;) as they never ever seem to question me in las in august when i'm wearing a leather jacket, a sweater and sweating like nobody's bidness. you'd think that i'd stick out like a broken hockey stick but no, they're after real ter'wrists not orthopedic shoe ter'wrists. way to go with the bdo program, tsa, you just flunked people observation 101a :rolleyes:

No BDOs in sight. :p Just pointless busywork. It's not as if I alarmed the WTMD.

They were doing this nonsense again this morning at the WN/AS/US/CO gates in T-1. It appeared to me that the WTMD up against the wall on the right side (the elite lane) was getting the "random" pat downs of everyone going through. No other lanes got it.

It was at first a woman TSO monitoring the WTMD who got every woman going through and ignored the men. After the line at the WTMD backed up about 20 people deep, she left and a guy waved everyone through. He left and some big dude--whose breathing reminded me of my golden retriever's panting after a good run--took his place. He of course "randomly" chose every man walking through. He also didn't like it when I told him to change his gloves before touching me. Apparently the bad guys will only use that WTMD at SFO. :rolleyes:

I think the best way to avoid this is to keep an eye on which lanes are getting the pat downs and pick accordingly.

This seems like the best approach, and most sensible.

(Fortunately terrorists will never figure this out.)