TSA marks on baggage tags
 

Take a look at the 3 baggage tags:

http://members.cox.net/billinaz/baggage%20tags1.jpg


This was from a trip today. 3 bags, 3 different people, same TSA employee sending the bags thru the scanner.

I noticed that at the outbound airport, the same marks were placed on certain bags.

I watched the TSA employee grab a red marker and marks the tags on certain bags with a red mark. At first I didnt think anything of it, but on the return flight I noticed the red marks again.

If you notice on the tags there were only 2 of the 3 tags marked. There was a difference in the contents of the marked bags, and I hope thats not why they were marked.

But my suspicion arose when I noticed that the one tag wasnt marked and I correlated the bags with the marks and their contents compared to the unmarked tag.

Maybe its coincidence which is why I put this question out..... does anyone know the relevance of the red sharpie marks on the tags???

Should they even be defacing the airlines' encoded routing information?

Not that TSA would step up to accept responsibility for a misrouted bag.

That information is SSI, Comrade.

I am surprised marks were not Hammer and Sickle.

Actually, if they denote what I think they do.... they're a violation of Federal Law.....

I've had luggage tags with either a TSA sticker on them or a red mark. Depends on the airport doing the screening and availability if Ofelia Ruiz (customer service manager at EWR) told me the straight skinney.

Good luck trying to prosecute. (FFFF)

Ok.. not psychic.

What do you think they denote?

Are you thinking firearms?

My guess, based on posting history - the bags with red marks had approved firearms cases, with all appropriate paperwork, inside. IIRC, from a correction someone posted about one of my thoughts in another thread:

1. Firearms cases are permitted inside checked luggage, as long as they are appropriately secured and the process has been completed for notifying the airline of the contents.
2. Bags containing a weapons case are not to be identified in any particular outwardly visible fashion (Section 302 of the Brady Law).

But the TSA is not a "common or contract carrier" (which is who is regulated by the law, as I read it, possibly incorrectly), so you'd have to also prove that the airline "required or caused" the marks to be made.

After checked baggage is screened, TSA requires the TSOs doing the screening to place a mark on the baggage tag itself to show that it's been screened. What, exactly, this mark is, is up to the specific airport TSA offices to decide. I've seen it where it's just a slash, sometimes it's an 'X', sometimes it's actually a stamp or a sticker.

In Huntsville, we use a red (we've experimented with yellow, black, and blue, as well, but red shows up the best) Marks-A-Lot marker to write a number on the baggage tag. The TSOs are all assigned numbers (kind of like the old "Inspected by 12" stickers you'd find on some manufactured goods for QA purposes) in Huntsville, and the only thing this number is good for is to denote which particular TSO screened the bag. The supervisors make rounds through checked baggage, checking the bag tags to ensure both that the TSOs mark them, as well as mark them legibly.

Incidentally, this number is also written on the lovenote that the TSO places inside the checked baggage if we have to open it, typically alongside the time and date stamp that we put on them.

So if you were flying out of Huntsville, say, and you noticed something was missing in your bag, and you called the TSA office to make a complaint about it, they'd first tell you to look at the bag tag and tell them what number it is. Then they'd ask for the timestamp on the lovenote, and then we have a wonderful 100% full-coverage camera system that records everything that happens in baggage.

All of this was done as a deterrent by our TSA management to clear us of wrongdoing. Supposedly, it's already exonerated six TSOs who the passenger was just absolutely certain had stolen something out of their bags.

Our system works splendidly without causing any kind of noticeable delays in screening, but like I said, it's up to the individual TSA offices at the individual airports to decide what kind of system they use.

However, yes: TSA does require us to mark the bag tag itself, in some way, to show that it's been screened.

I have had similar marks on my bag tags on a couple occasions. I am quite certain there were no firearms in said bags. Methinks the tin foil hats can go away for now. ;)

I like hearing that TSA has taken some steps to help identify who might be lifting things from bags. I suspect that as a TSO you don't like being in the eye of the camera all the time but as you noted these camera have helped to exonerate TSA employees.

I hope this is happening at all airports.

Now to get the baggage handlers under the camera too.

I don't see why they would mind. As LEO's like to say, if you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide, so why not subject yourself to full scrutiny anytime/all the time.

Plus, as noted, if you actually AREN'T doing anything wrong, having evidence of such can sometimes be useful.