The TSA's secret weapon

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Eghad

New member
You better not pout
You better not cry
or the TSA guy will be using the latex glove.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/travel/2007-09-25-behavior-detection_N.htm

So like what if I am in the screening line and have to take a piss real bad? The Tsa officer detains me because of my facial expression?

Guess I will have to ask the TSA guy who detained me if I can borrow a rubber glove.

Or an upset stomach and diarhea :eek:

Suppose I had just had a bad time with the ticket agent who screwed my stuff up?

I dont imagine im going to have that happy camper look.



Yes they did catch a few crooks but no terrorists yet....
 
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Manedwolf

Moderator
The man had caught Kinsey's eye not just because he acted nervously, but because he acted differently. Other travelers shuffling blankly along the security line that quiet afternoon showed all the emotion of cattle. This passenger's contrasting anxiety showed, in TSA parlance, "deviations from baseline behavior."
Click to expand...

Of course! You're SUPPOSED to be like cattle. Longtime CCWs, military personnel, etc...who are by nature situationally aware will of course be "suspicious". :barf:
 
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Redworm

Moderator
I'll let y'all know when I get tagged because I have a suspicion it's going to happen one day. I fly a lot and I am rarely seen acting "normally" by anyone's standards in any situation. :p
 
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Wildalaska

Moderator
I wear either my DEA-Anchorage T Shirt, or my Secret Service Golf shirt or my DEA Firearms Trainer Golf shirt. I do not represent myself as anything, I just wear the shirt. I never have any metal in my pockets either.

I never have a problem. I ALWAYS CARRY MY PASSPORT. I zip right through.

The only time I got hassled severely was when I was running late to a plane in Seattle at 6am and I was, like an idiot (or actually like a hungover idiot) wearing a NORML T shirt and had bloodshot eyes and my typical frenzied look with hair sticking up everywhere, like Trotsky on crack. Couple that with the penny buried in my pocket that kept setting off the alarms and my foul temper almost got me latexed, which would have been a drag for everyone based on the condtion of my stomach with all the booze in me.

I would have pulled me over if I had seen me like that...:D

Of course! You're SUPPOSED to be like cattle. Longtime CCWs, military personnel, etc...who are by nature situationally aware will of course be "suspicious".
Click to expand...

Funny I have had a CCW since 1981...see above....

WildfolksjustcantresisthyperboleAlaska TM
 
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Billy Sparks

New member
I am with WA on this one on our trip to Vancouver in August we just had our passports out followed all the instructions and had no problems. It however amazed me to see someone complaining about the "no drinks rule" while standing in front of the huge sign that said "You are not allowed to bring drinks through the check point" complaining that that didn't know anything about it.
 
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rich642z

New member
The TSAs secret weapon

I havent flown for about 34 years. If I want to go on vacation,I will drive my car anywhere I want and tell TSA to stick it somewhere. Vermont,HERE I COME TO MY NEW HOME!!!!!!!! Rich642z,Omaha,Ne.:D:D:D
 
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BoringAccountant

New member
Here is another funny story I recently encountered while flying to Paris for a wedding anniversary...

Me and my wife flew from DC to London then on to Paris. Mid-flight on the way to London, its about a 7 hour flight, we talked with one of the flight attendants, a male, who asked where we were going, what for, etc., just making small talk. After we landed, before we left the plane, he handed me a bottle of champagne, I think it was Sutter Home, as a congratulations, have fun type gift. It was very thoughtful and we thanked him and were on our way. Well in London, you have to switch terminals, which if anyone has ever been to Heathrow, its somewhat confusing, you have to take different buses etc. to get there. Well we get to the security check point and are going through and they discover the bottle of champagne in my wife's carry on...we completely forgot we had it at that point, plus there was nothing we could have done with it between switiching planes (you dont get your checked bags back, they are forwarded on automatically) so we had to throw it away and get scolded by the London security official about how liquids are not allowed, etc ad nauseum. Ah well, we still made it through security without the rubber gloves.
 
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jephthai

New member
I have to disagree with the idea that this is a bad thing. While I suffer from impaired social skills as an arch-geek, I am also aware of much of the discussion in the security industry around anti-terror efforts. While much is what Bruce Schneier calls "security theater" -- i.e., designed to make people feel safer without actually increasing safety -- the ability of LEOs to identify "unusual" or "suspicious" behavior ought to be the poster child for time-honored, successful means of stopping crime.

I am not in favor of unreasonable searches, but honestly -- if someone is acting weird in the line, I think it's entirely within the TSA's purview to investigate. I think there's lots of hype, the TSA is a mockery of security, but a strong case can be made that behavioral analysis is the multi-thousand year old holy grail of crime prevention.

For a representative discussion of these sorts of issues, check out Bruce Schneier's blog:

Profile: Hinky
Hinky at The Casino: JDLR
Recognizing "Hinky" vs. Citizen Informants

I suppose I'll get flamed for suggesting that cops should be able to frisk you and delay your itinerary by 10 minutes with no reason... but really, I'm suggesting that acting weird in the security line is not "no reason." I want to toe the party line here on the gun boards, where I say that it drives me nuts how they treat us like cattle. But I can't really do that, because I do actually think cops should be watching for suspicious behavior.

Whether TSA shirts have the requisite training, experience, and knowledge to do it right... well... that's another discussion. But in principle, watching for strange behavior is a Good Idea(TM).

-Jephthai-

P.S. -- You can have situational awareness without looking weird.
 
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Manedwolf

Moderator
the ability of LEOs to identify "unusual" or "suspicious" behavior ought to be the poster child for time-honored, successful means of stopping crime.
Click to expand...

But if they do it right, like El-Al's people do, it's called "profiling, and the ACLU and CAIR file lawsuits.
 
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jephthai

New member
But if they do it right, like El-Al's people do, it's called "profiling, and the ACLU and CAIR file lawsuits.
Click to expand...

Which is why they call it "behavioral analysis".

I won't tell if you don't. ;)

-Jephthai-
 
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Wildalaska

Moderator
Im tellin ya, I'm afraid the terr masterminds are gonna slip some loser on a plane with a stick of dynamite up his butt AND blow him in so that it is found by some TSA hero...

And then like some anouncement from a turbanite spouting "O evil satan infidels our holy warriors from Buttcrackistan shall use our nether parts to hide the seeds of your destruction, beware"....

You watch...folks will be crying for the the TSA to take their shoes off again...and since ya can't profile, like my 75 year old blue hair mom will be cowering before some 6 foot TSA guy with a latex glove and a bottle of KY whilst some 20 year old exchange student from Saudi Arabia wearing a "Bomb U" T shirt and swearting bullets will whisk through security dreaming of houris......

WildithinkilltakethetrainAlaska TM

PS...all seriousness, I have never been a cop, just a student of people, and I can recognize hinky.

Especially if I look in the mirror
 
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lockedcj7

New member
Whenever possible, I take my trips in a Cessna 172. I drive my truck out onto the ramp, load the airplane, do the preflight and go fly. Since the airplane is based at a field without a control tower, I'm not required to talk to anyone much less consent to search and seizure. I often CC while flying. :D
 
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Eghad

New member
I have a government military agency ID card and am severly caucasian. In fact there were three of us from the same office one was an active duty military person. We all got pulled over to the side in the TSA line to search us and our bags....lol

while the guy that looked like a mule from Mexico slid right through...:D
 
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BerettaCougar

New member
Last year, I flew from Tampa to NYC every two weeks on business..
The only time I had a problem was when I brought my notebook computer and it would not turn on.

For some reason they ask you to turn it on, I guess to make sure it's a real computer and not a case with c4 in it...anyway I told them the battery was dead, they told me to get out of line and plug it in and prove that it turns on to a TSA member...
 
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Manedwolf

Moderator
Last year, I flew from Tampa to NYC every two weeks on business..
The only time I had a problem was when I brought my notebook computer and it would not turn on.

For some reason they ask you to turn it on, I guess to make sure it's a real computer and not a case with c4 in it...anyway I told them the battery was dead, they told me to get out of line and plug it in and prove that it turns on to a TSA member...
Click to expand...

Because, of course, it would be completely impossible to remove the optical drive, and have a chunk of Semtex in place of drive... :rolleyes:
 
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jfrey123

New member
Easy solution here: Wear a black ski mask when you go to the airport. That way, they can't tell if your facial expressions are nervous or casual. Heavy trenchcoat or an oversized poncho will help to conceal your body language... :p



I'm thinkin' violation of the 4th here, due only to them approaching you at random. If they want to ask you about travel plans while screening you, I'm more ok with that. But I don't want to be sittin' at the Micky D's, eating a greasy Egg McMuffin and get guy coming with that latex glove :eek:...
 
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BillCA

New member
Gee, all this fancy terminology and training to do what old-time cops used to call observation.

You know, the guy who trys to act too casual, but does the same "casual" motions over and over. Or has a small litter of cigarette butts near him.

Is that guy craning his neck to look ahead just antsy that he'll miss his flight? Or does he keep checking the nearest exit points to see if they're covered? That guy with the ball cap and sunglasses keeps looking down or away from uniforms, is he hiding something or busy playing games on his cell phone?

I've flown a few times since 9/11 and had some chats with TSA guys. One in ORD (Chicago) checked my shoes while chatting me up about my trip ("Business trip this time?" - Which was a good bet as I was in a suit. No doubt if I said I was there on pleasure it would have raised a flag.)

Since I always seem to get in line one or two people behind the ditzy blonde fashion-queen with the 312 earrings, bracelets, bangles and dangles I get annoyed when I see someone in line like that. Last trip out of SJC I saw a 20-something woman about 6 people ahead. TSA guy came down the line telling folks to have boarding passes ready. I pointed out the young woman and said "You might want to warn her to get that stuff off now. It'll save the rest of us the desire to shoot her later." He laughed and thanked me.
 
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Doberguy

New member
The Israelis have been doing this for a while.
As BillCA has said it is nothing more then observation.
The problem is the caliber of the people doing the observing and the training they receive.

Fully functional laptops can contain explosives.
 
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