TSA Overstepping Their Bounds

ARFlyer

ARFlyer

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ARFlyer
http://apps.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/graphics/2018/07/tsa-quiet-skies/?b9eaj

This program needs to be dismantled. TSA tries to expanded beyond their limits and sees if anyone will notice. Thankfully this time someone noticed.

They even "tracked" working crew members which even the Air Marshals felt was dumb. As a pilot I'm always thankful for FAMs being on the flight. But they shouldn't be wasting their time and energy watching Ms. Smith because she's scare to fly and physically looks scared. This is almost as bad as the TSA failed Behavior Detection program.
 
wants me to buy a subscription to read.
 
"Reversing or changing directions and/or stopping while transiting through the airport." Bwa ha ha ha ha!! I'm on that watch list for sure.
 
The week after 9/11 when the airspace first opened up, a police car following me all the way to the airport (I had a flight with a student). I am a visible minority, so this did not surprise me, especially one week after the terrorist attacks. Other than an interesting story to tell (like I am doing now), I did not spend any time worrying about it.
 
I was checking out the behavior checklist. I would definitely be on their "oh boy!!" list based on a lot of those items.

I typically come back from work unshaven, with long hair, don't sit right at the gate, always wandering around (changing directions), quite often will shower and change clothes (it's up to 60 hours of travel for me!!), I people watch, I'm always blinking since I'm so fatigued on these flights, use natural mirrors to see what's around me, hardly sleep (unless I'm up front in a lay flat seat), always have and use a computer and other iGadgets, don't check bags...

I'm sure there's other stuff that would throw up flags for me.
 
I am surprised they can track anyone, they would do stuff like let someone through the checkpoint with a water bottle and then issue an APB for everyone to find them and remove it. Then they wouldn't be able to find them and marked it as "low threat" to dismiss it.
 
ARFlyer said:
@Rushie @EdFred Try this link. It's not as detailed as the main Boston article but it gets the high points https://www.washingtonpost.com/amph...0ffe94-9370-11e8-810c-5fa705927d54_story.html
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You mean @Gerhardt not me. I opened the original one just fine.

I'm a little disturbed by what they might be using for selecting candidates for this surveillance. The team receives information such as name and place of birth, and what else do they get, or was used to select you? Your NRA membership?

And what the heck is a "cold penetrating stare"? How subjective is that??? Someone with ice blue eyes that are deep set under dark eyebrows, cold and penetrating is going to be his resting default state any time he doesn't happen to be smiling.

Multiple devices? It must be getting hard to find passengers who aren't using multiple devices these days.

There is a lot wrong with this. Glad some of the FAMs are complaining.
 
Rushie said:
You mean @Gerhardt not me. I opened the original one just fine.

I'm a little disturbed by what they might be using for selecting candidates for this surveillance. The team receives information such as name and place of birth, and what else do they get, or was used to select you? Your NRA membership?

And what the heck is a "cold penetrating stare"? How subjective is that??? Someone with ice blue eyes that are deep set under dark eyebrows, cold and penetrating is going to be his resting default state any time he doesn't happen to be smiling.

Multiple devices? It must be getting hard to find passengers who aren't using multiple devices these days.

There is a lot wrong with this. Glad some of the FAMs are complaining.
Click to expand...
They get any info they want. Sweating or using the bathroom - really? What could that possibly indicate?

And one person got followed after engaging in a business meeting in Turkey - might as well require people to get permission to leave the country ("exit controls").
 
I'm really gonna create some employment!
Changing direction? Sleeping on the plane? Using the bathroom? All check :)
Maybe I'll get bonus points since I often have a camera handy and I'll track the flight with a Bad Elf and ForeFlight.

I can't wait until later when I have nearly back-to-back Europe flights. I'm gonna have lots of new "friends".
 
wsuffa said:
They get any info they want. Sweating or using the bathroom - really? What could that possibly indicate?
Click to expand...

Almost every post menopausal female fits that profile. Add wandering around the terminal looking for said restrooms, giving "cold penetrating stares" to the idiots walking side by side blocking the whole width of the corridor, and using multiple electronic devices (Kindle, iPad, iPhone, laptop), perfect description of me. I wonder why I keep getting TSA prechek? Is that their way of more closely keeping tabs on me?
 
Nothing I could do this morning would get me to the article. This time it loaded right off the bat. huh.

I'm always selected for extra screening. Always have been. The most humorous flight was coming back from Cancun several years ago (back when it was safe). A couple about our age was being sniffed by dogs, got pulled aside and they went through their cases in front of everyone. I was laughing out loud until the guy hollers over, "you're next". My wife was less than pleased with me.

Really, as long as it doesn't slow me down and I make my flight...I don't really care.

You know what I'd like to see though is TSA targeting idiots yelling on their cells, people wearing filthy clothes, people standing in the middle of the walkway with their luggage 2 feet from them, and people spilling food and coffee everywhere. And people taking up the chairs around them with their purses and bags.
 
Yeah a lot of these criteria are just plain ridiculous to bordering on stupid. Half the flyers I've passed in the terminal would fit these criteria.

If they followed me I would meet half these items. I can't tell you how many items I've exited gate XYX and turned the wrong direction. I often stand from afar and look for open seats instead of walking my ass off up and down the aisles.

Heck I even use the bathroom if I have to! Quite often I use the front lav if I have friends working that flight as I like to chat for a few seconds in the galley. I'll especially do it this next D.C. trip since I haven't seen any of my FA friends since last Spring.
 
Rushie said:
You mean @Gerhardt not me. I opened the original one just fine.

I'm a little disturbed by what they might be using for selecting candidates for this surveillance. The team receives information such as name and place of birth, and what else do they get, or was used to select you? Your NRA membership?

And what the heck is a "cold penetrating stare"? How subjective is that??? Someone with ice blue eyes that are deep set under dark eyebrows, cold and penetrating is going to be his resting default state any time he doesn't happen to be smiling.

Multiple devices? It must be getting hard to find passengers who aren't using multiple devices these days.

There is a lot wrong with this. Glad some of the FAMs are complaining.
Click to expand...

The article even says they get handed the file with just your photo and that information listed. Heck that's KGB level paranoia!
 
Somewhat related...

I just did a flight out of Amsterdam. While going through security, a fellow ahead of me went to toss his water bottle in the trash. The security fellow told him it wasn't necessary and to put it in his bag. That gave me a big WTF?? So I asked what was up. Apparently they have some sort of new scanners that allows everything to stay in the bag, including drink bottles. I didn't stick around to get all the details, but it's nice that someone, somewhere is trying to make things easier.
 
Anymouse said:
Somewhat related...

I just did a flight out of Amsterdam. While going through security, a fellow ahead of me went to toss his water bottle in the trash. The security fellow told him it wasn't necessary and to put it in his bag. That gave me a big WTF?? So I asked what was up. Apparently they have some sort of new scanners that allows everything to stay in the bag, including drink bottles. I didn't stick around to get all the details, but it's nice that someone, somewhere is trying to make things easier.
Click to expand...
Maybe they do in Amsterdam, but not in Santa Fe. :rolleyes:

But Amsterdam was the place where I got the very thorough check at the gate. Everything out of the carry-on and checked with swabs.
 
So, does TSA direct Air Marshals? That's weird, I thought Air Marshals were LEOs and the reason there's always local police at the airport security checkpoints is because TSA is NOT a law enforcement organization.
 
And how many air marshalls are there? >.0001% of airline passengers being tracked.
 
bflynn said:
So, does TSA direct Air Marshals? That's weird, I thought Air Marshals were LEOs and the reason there's always local police at the airport security checkpoints is because TSA is NOT a law enforcement organization.
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I thought this too, but Wiki says the air marshal program was transferred to TSA in 2005.
 
Clip4 said:
And how many air marshalls are there? >.0001% of airline passengers being tracked.
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I think the article says less than 50 people have been tracked. But the worry is it will grow. Those 50 people by the sounds of the article should have never been tracked. It seems they're fishing to prove they're a critical security agency.
 
“cold penetrating stare” - that's me most mornings after a few Irish single malts.
 
Note that posting the full text, or a large portion of an article violates copyright rules. Two posts have been deleted.
 
Maybe its Google AI behind the scenes collecting data on people, because it has awoke.
 
ARFlyer said:
I think the article says less than 50 people have been tracked. But the worry is it will grow. Those 50 people by the sounds of the article should have never been tracked. It seems they're fishing to prove they're a critical security agency.
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That's each day.
 
Everskyward said:
So do passengers...
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My sister has never filed an eAPIS when she leaves the country on 121. Also never got a threat of a $5000 fine because she used a shortened version of her name.
 
EdFred said:
My sister has never filed an eAPIS when she leaves the country on 121. Also never got a threat of a $5000 fine because she used a shortened version of her name.
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Your sister hasn't, but the air carrier has done so in her behalf.
 
The TSA oversteps its bounds every time one of their goons lays their hands on me because their stupid overpriced scanner shows something suspicious between my clothes and me when there’s nothing there.

And now they are observing everyday innocuous behaviors and reading something suspicious into them.

Amazing.
 
Man, next time I go to the airport I'm gonna have a good old time messin' with them. :)
 
I once did a time/motion study for the TSA to try and figure out how to help them meet metrics for throughout time. It involves me building a computer simulation of a TSA checkpoint. To do that I had to get average time distributions for all of their processes, and the group I was in was told not to tell the agents what we were doing since they behaved differently if they knew they were being watched. There were three of us on the team. We were question or detained by airport police and agents every single time we observed them. We could be in a lounge overlooking the checkpoint with all of our stuff hidden behind a newspaper and within an hour someone would be coming up to us asking "can I help you with something?"

I have serious beef with the TSA, but to the individual agents' credit, they were super nice and took an active interest in our study once they learned what we were doing and that we were trying to help their teams meet metrics.
 
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