<p>Sorry if this was already discussed. I ran a search.</p>
<p>There is a lot of news and emotion on line about making the choice between having the body scanner and the “enhanced” pat downs. </p>
<p>I see statements such as:
“We have the right to the witness of our choosing if we go to the privacy room for the pat down”
“We have the right to ask for a same sex screener of the body scanner images”
“We have the right to keep in view our carry ons that have come through the scanner.”</p>
<p>However, all of these are without links to an official website or statement. Does anyone know of a list that spells out what are rights are?</p>
<p>I am not trying to start a debate. I just want to be informed.</p>
<p>I do not think that such documents exist. Even if they did, TSA will do whatever they want to do. You are at their mercy when you go through the screening checkpoint. You have the right to miss your flight or file a lawsuit.</p>
<p>You have the right to remain silent. Anything you choose to say may be used against you … even if it is hearsay. You have the right not to be searched … but only if you choose not to fly, and even then only if you don’t enter the TSA security line. You have the right to watch your children be patted down … so long as you don’t say “This is the kind of thing that will happen to you if you go to prison.” You have the right to say to your teenage daughter “It’s only sexual battery if someone other than a TSA employee does that.” You have the right to listen to TSA administrators parry each complaint with “Our only goal is to keep you safe from terrorists.” … even if you are flying the puddle-jumper from St. Louis to Kansas City. Finally, you have the right to your opinions … but only if you keep them to yourself.</p>
<p>IANAL, but it’s important to note that the TSA screeners are not LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers) - i.e. they have no statutory powers of arrest. They can’t actually detain you - all they do is call real LEO’s when TSA’s policies call for it.</p>
<p>Haven’t you noticed? Since 9/11 any law-enforcement can do almost anything that want to anybody.</p>
<p>Your only option as a citizen is to spend allot of money to question it, but only after the fact. And our judges have abborgated their duty by blindly supporting government actions. Judges these days see themselves as part of law-enforcement and thus cooperative with all it’s branches. </p>
<p>The taking away of citizens rights in the name of threats to security and the common good is a classic tactic used lately used by Nazi’s, Communists and and those of like ilk. </p>
<p>And any government that practices such always explains that it is acting in your best interest.</p>
<p>I agree, toblin and BunsenBurner. It is terrifying to me how massively the government’s powers have increased since 9/11 – all in the name of protecting us.</p>
<p>OP: Once you cross that line into the secure section of an airport, you effectively surrender your rights. TSA can do anything they want, and you have no recourse.</p>
<p>Fortunately, I do not fly often. At our local airport there was a report yesterday that a flight attendant had to remove her prosthetic breast after being patted down - this just seems so ridiculous!!</p>
<p>I recently took a trip which involved 3 different airports. One of the airports used the full body scanner, but I didn’t even realize this until I got home. I just got in the security cattle line and stepped into the machine when it was my turn. I remember thinking, “what the heck?” when they told me to put my hands over my head, but didn’t think more about it. After I stepped out of the machine, they still pulled me to the side and did a pat down. It wasn’t the new pat down, thankfully, but still… if you’re going to pat me down anyway, don’t make me go through the scanner. </p>
<p>Actually, I got pulled out of line for extra special security twice that trip. I can’t for the life of me figure out why. I think the more you don’t fit the profile of a potential plane bomber, the more likely you are to get singled out. Either that, or I was abducted by aliens and had secret alien materials implanted in my body. Maybe I should see a doctor about that.</p>
<p>I’m really not sure why security measures are a big deal. I have a replaced hip and get “patted down” routinely. It’s never offensive, rude, or so thorough that I’m embarrassed. It seems to me that there are a lot of “overly sensitive” people out there. Why should my security be compromised due to this over sensitivity?</p>
<p>GTalum, the rules have changed. This isn’t the old-style pat-down. Google “enhanced pat down” for an idea of what it involves. It’s so bad that the TSA backed off requiring children to undergo it.</p>
<p>I haven’t had to get the new pat-down yet, but I won’t mind when I eventually do. Heck, if it means air travel will be safer, I will strip down naked and do the hokey-pokey if asked.</p>
<p>I was just patted down 3 weeks ago when I flew. It did seem a bit more enhanced to me, but still not offensive. But, I wasn’t wearing baggy clothes. Anyone know when the rules changed?</p>
<p>I seriously doubt this enhanced examination is doing one bit of good for real security. Some folks in caves are laughing at the stupid Americans going after a trick they tried last year. Whatever they are planning now will evade any security we are using now.</p>
<p>Scan away. Pat away.
Did anyone notice this is not 1955? There are a large amount of humans on this planet that want Americans DEAD! And they will go to any extremes to accomplish this! They will plan for years for an attack, large and small.
I just think it is funny how soon we forget 9/11. And how soon we forget that no successful plane bombings have occurred since then. The bad guys have tried. And they have been foiled. Thank God.</p>
<p>So TSA, scan me or pat me down. I know you are just trying to keep the bombs and such off the planes. I know you are not trying to sexually assault me in front of a bunch of people at an airport. I know that scan of me will not shock you when you find out I have breasts and am a bit overweight ( I mean, did I or anyone else need a scan to know that? Come on!).</p>
<p>I hate it that we have to think about our safety all the time. The USA has been very blessed for many years to avoid the terrorism that has existed elsewhere. Lucky us. But this is not the same world we grew up in.
Those wonderful soldiers in Afghanistan are doing their best to keep the terrorism at bay on the front lines. I certainly can suck it up and do my part to keep it off the home front for 10 minutes at an airport.</p>
<p>I had a pretty thorough, “intrusive” patdown in the Helsinki airport a few months ago. It wasn’t pleasant (and came as a surprise), but if I had an “underwear” bomb on, they probably would have found it. One of my siblings regularly flies that flight into Detroit were the underwear bomb was attempted (he had flown in on that same flight a couple of days before that incident), so this does not seem like that distant a threat to me.</p>
<p>The problem with the “why search people on the puddle jumpers” comment is that once you are behind security, you can get on another flight to anywhere in the US. </p>
<p>I am with ilovedcollege on this one. Don’t like, then take the train or drive. We all wish that terrorists weren’t trying to bring down planes, but the evidence is that they are.</p>
<p>Might be worse to BE the TSA person doing the “grope search” than having it done to you, by the way.</p>
<p>I do agree with the OP that it makes sense for passengers to have some “rights” like the ones listed in the original post, but can’t answer the question about the details of the policy and whether we DO have those rights. I remember discussion about the same-sex reviewer at one point. Must say, that seems a bit complex to implement (separate machines by gender? Someone sets something on the machine that says what gender you are, so it sends a separate feed by gender?).</p>
<p>I thought the point of the full body scan was to avoid the pat downs and make the lines move faster, and give the TSA screeners a more complete picture if we were carrying weapons or explosives. If they can see inside our clothes and the outlines of our most personal body features, why do they need to grope us, as well? </p>
<p>Why do they need to do an enhanced pat down, too? Isn’t that overkill?</p>
<p>I am not opposed to stringest security features when flying to create safer skies but it is getting ridiculous.</p>