http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/03/21/tsa-full-body-scanners-patdowns-gitmo-fourth-amendment-privacy-column/81779330/?utm_content=bufferb0aa8&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
By: Jim Bovard
I just recently resigned from TSA after just training with them for two weeks.
The event took place on Thursday March 17, 2016. My instructors were Judy, Gerald, and Diego. A handout was given to the class and I thought we were able to keep the handout so I put it in my bag at the end of the lesson. Gerald then asked for the handouts to be turned back in so I took it out of my bag and turned it in. The instructor saw me take the handout out of my bag and asked to see me after class. After class when we spoke he wanted to know what happened that I put the sheet in my bag, and I told him I thought we were able to keep the sheet. He went on to remind me that all books, sheets, notes we take, on no matter what paper, were FLETC material due to SSI sensitivity and were to be turned in at the end of the program. I let him know that I had been taking reference notes on the notepad they gave us and turning the references into full study notes back at the hotel room. I also let him know that I had thrown away the reference notes because they didn’t have real actual material on them. A sample of my reference notes would be as follows:
Scan Procedures, pg 10..
History of Threats, pg 3..
WTMD Verbage, pg 12..
Gerald then insisted that I violated policy and that he and I needed to write an incident report. My report needed to include a detailed description of how I threw out the reference notes, where I threw out the reference notes and the dates I threw them out. I reminded him that from day one of class, March 14th, the only thing we were told was that we had to turn in our notes at the end of the program. We, the class, were never told that we could not throw away any notes, and if we were to discard any notes we either had to give them to one of the instructors or put them in one of the pad locked bins located outside of the class in the hall navigate to this site. He then got on his cell phone to call someone from headquarters on the incident. He was pacing back and forth so nervously I thought I might be getting arrested for throwing out notes. I even asked Judy, who was present, “Am I going to get arrested for throwing out notes”? Her response was “Oh, no nothing like that”. When Gerald got off the phone he said the phone report was made, it went straight up to the top, and we’ll be informed tomorrow, March 18th, on what’s to take place. While he was on the phone I asked Judy where are these bins to throw away notes, because I’ve never known of them before. When she showed me the bins I let her know I thought those were recycling bins and didn’t know they were for throwing notes away. I let them both know that they should’ve let the whole class know about the bins and on how to discard notes. Later on that evening I called Gerald and asked him if he’d ever come across something like this, and he said yes. I asked what’s going to be the outcome of something like this, and he said every situations different but it can go from my being let go to just getting a slap on the wrist and being told never to do that again.
At that point the whole idea of my getting reported for throwing out reference notes upset me so much that I couldn’t study that night, I couldn’t eat, and I decided that this TSA job is just to trifling and not the job for me. I thought to myself if I could get reported for throwing away notes what’s going to happen if something REALLY serious takes place? The next day I let Diego know that I wanted to resign my position from TSA. We went through the procedure to get me sent back to my hotel room, and before I left Diego let me know that the program is deliberately set up to be of higher standards and more difficult than our actual job at the airport, because it’s on a federal installation.
Please ensure that ALL new hires are informed of the “horror stories” that take place with TSA. Inform new hires to have a job backup plan. I’m a firm believer that forewarned is forearmed, in this way if people DO take the job and something DOES happen they can at least have reference material to go on, and implement their job backup plan if necessary.
I’ve spoken to the union president and two friends about the incident. They all agreed that I made the right decision. One friend was made to resign after 5 years and the other still works for them but is trying to find a different job. The union president told me that TSA is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to a federal job. Most of his complaints come from single parents, and that TSA deliberately fires people as a means of not allowing people to retire so the company won’t have to pay out the retirement pension.
Today I did my exit interview and was made to sign a form stating that I wouldn’t disclose any of the information I learned while at TSA, like they’re really going to know if I told anything or not! Lucky for me I didn’t quit my other job.
TSA made me reallize that the grass isn’t greener on the other side. Just because a job is federal doesn’t mean it’s a good job.
By: Nancy
As a frequent traveler (US and International) after every negative TSA experience, I thnk “I wonder which airport has the worst TSA employees?” Today, after a trip originating at the San Diego airport where I experienced the usual apathy/incompetence that accounts for an average wait time of 20 minutes…regardless of how many people are in front of you (middle-aged TSA agents laughing and joking with each other rather than realizing the line is backing-up because there is a wheelchair assist etc) and broke down to see if there is a website where average travelers can actually hold TSA and airports accountable. This site was the closest, so here’s a suggestion: Is there a way you can add a survey/quiz to this blog to ask readers to rate the worst TSA by airport? This would be interesting…
By: Suave
I have never liked flying ever since the body scanners were implemented, I’ve driven everywhere unless, like on this trip, there is no other option.
So I forgot to take the sunscreen out of my carry on which shouldn’t be a big deal right? They found that and stole it and then they took me aside for a pat down which I thought would be fine. The guy went through the legal stuff “back of the hands blah blah blah.” And he was aparently new because he had a trainer with him who I complained to later. He went through the pat down and asked if I had any sensitive areas and I said yes and informed him that my balls were soar from traveling so please don’t touch them.
When he got to my groin he at first respected my wish and didn’t touch my balls but then the trainer told him he “needs to get up in there” and to “not be shy” so he grabbed my balls and I yelped a little in pain. After he massaged my man parts a few times he sent me on my way.
On the return flight during the pat down a man did respect my wish and skipped my balls although made a very awkward statement about my penis when he was back hand sliding my front parts or whatever they call it. Anyways, that was the last time I ever fly if I can help it….
By: Colton
I work at an airport and going through screening everyday can just be “delightful”….sarcasm intented.
For the past four years I’ve been lucky to not have to be subject to extra screening via the scanners. As an airport employee, TSA always had me continue on through the medal detector although the “random” extra screening buzzer went off.
That all changed a few weeks ago in the wake of the attacks in Paris. Now EVERYONE has to go through the scanner….airport employee or not….when the “random” buzzer goes off.
I had to go through the scanner for the first time in four years two weeks ago. Okay, make that three times having to go through the scanner during one random check. That’s how many times it took TSA to figure out the barret in my hair, my (cross) necklace, laynard with airport badge/ID, my watch, my belt and my tube of chapstick were not a security threat. While TSA had me contiously go back through the scanner, they called a female officer to assist me. All she did was took my wrist and turned it over so she could see the watch band. Then she had me lower my head and shake it back and forth. What did they think, I was smuggling something through in my watch band and have something hidden in my hair???? All the while TSA made me feel like I was the one doing something wrong. All I was doing was trying to get to work. It was humilating and degrading how they treated me. They finally let me on my way……after making me late for work by that point.
Fast forward to last week. I was once again subjected to a “random” extra screening. This time I was prepared. I took off my belt and sent it through the xray while I went through the scanner. I was stopped again in order for a female officer to “assist” me. I forgot about the necklace I was wearing and she patted my collar bone area to confirm it was “just” a necklace. Then she let me go to work.
I had four days off from work for the holiday. When I came back to work yesterday. once again, I was subjected to a “random” extra screening. Same scenorio….too off my belt, placed my neclace behind my back. Once again a female officer had to look at my watch band.
Today, for the third time in a row, I had to go through the scanner again for a “random” extra screening. I purposly didn’t wear my belt today in so I was ready to go through. I got stopped again…..this time because of my shoes and my ankles were suspicious. While one TSA officer sent my shoes (that I have ALWAYS worn through screening without a problem) through the xray, a female officer patted down my ankles. She even joked about how suspicious my ankles looked, making light of the situation, which helped elivate some of my frustration. Out of ALL the TSA officers I’ve delt with during all my “random” searches, she was the ONLY officer who treated me with dignity and respect.
As an airport employee, I get that I am subjected to random searches at any time. That isn’t my problem. What my problem is why is it turning out to be an every day thing after not being subjected to it for four years? My other problem is the lack of respect and undignified manner in which the TSA officers treat people during the “random” extra screenings. It’s uncalled for.
By: Cindy
I’m a fourteen year old girl, and today, 11/27/15, I was (unfortunately) flying home from Ft. Lauderdale Airport with my family. You know how there’s a normal metal detector and one of those body scanners? Well, the TSA worker directing (and by directing I mean basically shouting nonsensical orders at confused innocent) people through one or the other—and this was a MALE worker, might I add—directed every MAN through the normal metal detector and every WOMAN (or girl in my case, let me remind you I’m fourteen) through that stupid invasive body scanner thing. Do those actually show you naked? Regardless, it was extremely sexist. Oh yeah, then he yelled at me to move faster when I got confused.
By: Laney
As me and my family were returning home to Ireland from JFK Airport we had yet another delightful encounter with the TSA.
We arrived just over 3 and a half hours early for our flight and still ended up running onto our flight due to security “delays”.
When we joined the queue for security the incompetence started almost immediately. TSA agents “directing” people in raised and badly mannered tones. The sentence “Put away your boarding cards people, you shouldn’t have anything in your hands from this point onwards!” was repeated over and over until we finally got to the bag x-ray machines and metal detectors where a stout and angry little TSA agent began to berate people for NOT having their boarding cards out “Everyone who DOESN’T have their boarding cards out is causin’ delays for ‘ERY’BODY”. I politely informed her that her colleauges who were on chaperoning duty of the queue were telling people to stow away their boarding cards, she promptly told me that I “Weren’t listenin’ proper, Sir”.
I bit my tongue and carried on through security after myself and the rest of the people being subjected to this stupidity had to go digging in their bags for their boarding cards.
What happened next is what really irked me, as I passed through the metal detector and started gathering my belongings on the other side the same lady as mentioned before followed me through and said “Sir, SIR…Take your watch! Don’t leave any of your belongings behind!” as she tried to hand me some other gentlemans watch. I replied “That’s not my watch” and began to walk away only to then be stopped and very aggresively asked “SIR, why do you have someone else’s watch!?” to which I said “I don’t, you’re trying to hand me someone elses watch”
It took several minutes for myself and the gentleman who owned the watch to spell out to this moron that it was her who made the mistake and not me, or the watch owner. It was like explaining a Sherlock Holmes case to a toddler that she’d take the watch out of the mans tray before he could and wrongly presumed it was mine. She then, very rudely told us that we we’re “Free to go”.
Holy sh*t.
By: Steve
An open letter to Congressman John Mica (which did no good)”
I would like to relate to you a harrowing experience I had with the TSA. I hope you can spare me a bit of you time.
My mother-in-law died suddenly last month which had meant a last minute trip to Memphis for the funeral and an emotionally exhausting ordeal. By the time I made it to the airport to return home, I was in a daze.
I looked at the TSA checkpoint and fortunately no one was in line. The woman who checked my id and ticket yelled “TSA Pre-check!” to the other agents. My background had been checked a month earlier by the Department of Homeland Security and they had sent me a Global Entry card. It is supposed to make going through TSA security and customs a breeze. “This should be quick”, I thought hopefully.
The next agent I saw had his eyes focused on a blank wall at the other side of the room. Beside him and between me and the conveyor belt was a sign with a red circle with a line through it. No entry. I asked the man where I was to go. Without stopping his perusal of the blank wall, or looking at me, or saying a word, he pointed straight ahead. I surveyed the labyrinth of retractable belt dividers in front of me, sighed and walked in. I trudged the serpentine path through the maze carrying my laptop, my purse and dragging my luggage behind me. I think I mentioned previously that there was no one else in line…..
Finally, I made it to the end of the maze and came out on the other side of the “No entry” sign. The statue of a man was still studying the blank wall in front of him.
I put my bags on the conveyor belt and another agent motioned me into that contraption that lets them see you all the way down to your skin. The thought crossed my mind that maybe the agent manning the line had been working at this machine earlier and his eyes had been burned out by all the horrible sights he had seen and that was why he just stared at the wall. It’s possible, I suppose.
“Do you have anything in your pockets?” barked the TSA agent.
“Just a crystal”, I replied reaching into my pocket and holding the offending item out in my palm.
“Hold it in your hand and put your hands over your head!”
She looked at the screen and I stood there for what seemed to be an inordinate amount of time. She then walked away. I came out of the machine and seeing no one there to give me directions, started to go get my bags.
“Stop! Stay right where you are!” SS commander TSA-Agent shouted.
“What is that on your hand?”
“It is a support glove for my arthritis”, I said.
“We need to examine it!”
Since they had already seen me as good as naked, I wondered how on earth they thought I could be hiding anything. I started to reach for the strap to remove the glove.
“Don’t touch it!” the commandant screamed.
It seemed as if she thought I was about to pull the pin on a hand grenade instead of just taking off my arthritis glove. I started to get extremely jumpy from being screeched at so much.
She told me they had to get something to check my hand so I stood there and waited while they looked around for whatever the something was. They came back with a wand and went over my hand and all my fingers a few times as if I might have tiny little bombs under my fingernails.
She then walked away so I hesitantly crept toward my bags. I noticed one bag had been set aside but figured that was because it had taken me so long to make it through the peep show machine. I started to reach for the bag.
“Don’t touch that! It looks like an aerosol can in that bag and we have to search it! We have sent for someone to come look at it.”
I wasn’t sure if they had sent for the bomb squad or who but it took an awful long time. I tried to ask about it but all the agents acted like I was invisible. They wouldn’t look at me much less speak to me. I finally found a bench and sat down to wait.
At last another agent showed up and they began to go through the bag. I told them I had a travel sized can of hairspray in the bag but it was the same one that had flown with me to Memphis from Orlando. I told them they could throw it away, which they did.
They dug around through my things, passing up items I would have considered suspicious if I had been checking someone’s bag, but that didn’t seem to be what they were looking for. I had a one pound box of sugar I had bought in Memphis wrapped in a plastic grocery bag. The agent picked it up. I told her it was a box of sugar and she put it down. It could have been a block of plastic explosives and she would have never known. She finally located a tube of semi-expensive hand cream and said I would have to leave that behind. I said, “Okay, but I want to see it go into the trash container.” The poop really hit the fan then and they got extremely angry. I was angry too by this time because I felt as if I was being harassed by the agents.
They threw away the hand cream then told me to put my stuff back in my bag. I did so and one of the things I put in was my late son’s small teddy bear that I always take with me when I travel. When I put the bear into the bag one of the agents started screaming, “You hit me with that teddy bear!”
I told her that I didn’t think I had touched her at all but if I had, I had only brushed his fur against her arm. She continued to scream that I had hit her with the bear. Other passengers had arrived now and were looking at me like I was Osama bin Laden returned from the dead. By this time a nice quiet jail cell sounded pretty good; anything to get away from these insane, hateful TSA agents.
I told her that if she thought I had hit her with the teddy bear to call the police and have me arrested for assault. I could see the headline on the article in the paper, “TSA agent assaulted by 62-year-old grandmother wielding her late son’s teddy bear.”
The agent continued to screech so I repeated my request. “If you think I hit you with the teddy bear, call the police and have me arrested for assault.”
The agents suddenly got quiet and told me to go on. I got my things and headed to my gate.
I reported the incident to the TSA supervisor on duty and her response was to offer to walk me to my gate. I felt like saying, “No, after running the gauntlet through your terrorist agents I think I can make it on down to my gate, thank you!” But I just said no and went on. It is a good thing I had my Global Entry card or I would have probably ended up on death-row!
The next day, I called the TSA and reported the incident. It was assigned to the Memphis TSA office to investigate. I’m sure they were really hard on themselves. After a few weeks, I emailed them to ask what their findings were. This is their reply:
“The investigation indicated the TSA officers were following TSA procedures as specified in the current directives. There was no indication that any wrongdoing was involved on their part.”
So, there it is. The TSA can treat you any way they want, terrorize you until you almost miss your flight and there is nothing you can do about it. What a country!
By: Marilyn
I arrive at the Louisville airport TSA security check point. They let a few people in front of me through, then a family and when they got to me, they closed the non-X-Ray line and force me to enter the full body scan line. After that I find my bag being inspected by one of the rudest people in my entire life. He proceeds to go through my entire bag and even touch my toothbrush! He then runs my bag through the machine again, to end up going through a second smaller bag that was in my suitcase. As he seals up my suitcase, he says, “have a nice day.” I will never spend my money in Kentucky ever again. The TSA needs to quality background checks and educate their screeners.
By: Derek
I went to get a Global Entry card and had a few questions for the TSA agent that was handling my application. Any question that I asked, she simply asked my to either go watch the video in the waiting room or go to the website. Makes me wonder…do they know what they are doing.
I’ve seen some of these agents texting while working. I wonder if these jobs require any completion of education.
By: Polite Society