Unfortunately, the TSA's track-record with pretty much everything is terrible. So, I don't see anything good coming from it.
*edit: example in the first paragraph
However, that doesn't happen. So, we're stuck with an ineffective bureaucracy that is a waste of time, money and resources that labels itself "security".
I'm saying that you keeping a notebook with information on people who have offended you is much different than Amazon or the government keeping a list of people who have offended them.
I have never sworn, threatened, etc a TSO, but I still fear I could be put on such a list one day for my "difficult" behavior.
Personally, I think if they think behavior is egregious enough to need to be documented they should have the airport police cite the person for disorderly conduct. Police officers have a fairly wide latitude for issuing this charge, and we have an established court system to deal with appealing the matter.
Much more democratic than a secret list.
How strange that I have the opposite experience.
I do this too, dozens of flights per year in some years, opting for a pat-down and holding my items with me until they have someone ready, every time, and I've never once experienced rudeness or hostility from a TSA employee.
To be fair, I had good experiences flying out of IAD and DCA. I think they're either better trained, mindful that the person they're abusing may have some power, or a combination of the two.
Other airports though, the TSOs seem to take it personally if you opt out, and then everything else (asking not to re-use gloves, insisting on keeping baggage in your sightline etc)is you being "difficult".
No choice of words / tone can overcome the fact that these people find someone "challenging" them in any way shape or form as an affront.
(I don't come at it like some sort of sovereign citizen and try to smile/be polite. This works ~60% of the time)
>use disorderly conduct The police would just automatically agree with the agent, if you're not in a filmed area then you could get to go to court, be essentially forced to plead guilty, pay fines, and write an apology letter to the person who may have groped you inappropriately. Then you're on a public list, where anyone can use this possibly incorrect information against you.
The secret list actually sounds more democratic than (ab)using the court system to me since it's basically just a private account of someones opinion and everyones entitled to free speech.
I probably should have made this assumption explicit, but I would assume that police summoned to a checkpoint and told things like "he rudely opted out" would be told that no crime has occurred.
This is the case currently, and the whole reason they're creating a list: to punish legal behavior.
Maybe we should think of getting rid of ineffective state-sanctioned sexual assault instead of more lists.
Ie, the first metal detector arch beeped for her (I think it was a hair clip she had on) and they said she had no choice but to go through the body scanner.
I was not comfortable with that at all, but they lied and told me I had no choice. Immediately afterwards I looked it up online and saw that you can opt-out with a pat down.
I was pretty pissed they didn’t let me know this option, told me I had no choice. I think they were being lazy and didn’t want to deal with extra work. I submitted a formal complaint to Heathrow within an hour and they didn’t admit wrongdoing. They said there’s always an option to pay down. But refused to acknowledge their own security people didn’t present me with that option.
Anyway, just my rant from what happened a few days ago, somewhat on topic to this. (It’s the UK version of the TFA).
It's different when it's a government. If they are going to sanction you and deny you rights and impose other costs, they must do it after public due process.
The original title & article of this submission (while probably not as informative as currently) made it more clear that the TSA is being accused here of targeting people who have made complaints against the TSA.