Pre-Selected For Security Check

B

bad_dad_brad

New member
These past few days I flew from Chicago to Houston and back on business. This was the first time I had flown since 9-11. On both flights to and from my destination, I was informed just before boarding my flight (I had already passed regular airport security) that I was "pre-selected for a detailed security check" and that was accompanied by a clip-board with my name and about fifteen others on the same flight.

Here is my profile:

I am an American citizen, not just a citizen but from a family that has been in America since the early 1800's.

I am a white upper middle class professional.

I pay more in taxes than lower middle class Americans make in a year.

The last law I broke was in 1972. A petty traffic ticket.

I am single, a widower. I am 50 years old. I have three children and am a grandfather.

I am a firearms owner with a valid FOID that requires a detailed state and federal background check before I buy a firearm. I am clean and respected. My firearms purchases are approved within 30 seconds. I have no record.

In short, I am an individual that is the backbone of American society.

So, why was I "pre-selected" not once but twice in the space of three days?

The TSA folks that did my "checking" were professional, polite, and friendly, and of course, like a good law abiding citizen, I more than cooperated and even complemented the TSA agents, because, as the old saying goes "don't blame the messenger". But it really bugs me, that I, a solid taxpaying customer, was profiled.

Any TFLer have a similar experience?
 
If you get pre-selected for the first leg of your trip, you get pre-selected for every other leg of your round trip. At least that's what I was told when I was "pre-selected." That's why you were pre-selected twice. I also was told that if you arrive real early and check in first, you will always be "pre-selected." So be lazy. If I really thought that any of this made a difference, I wouldn't be posting, but I think it's all a crock, so I don't really care.

I also have been "random" selected in Philadelphia and got jacked up because the guy at the gate looked at my Wyoming DL, obviously had never seen one before, raised an eyebrow, and said, "go over there."

I have stopped bothering to collect frequent flier miles. I won't fly unless I absolutely have to.
 
Thanks WYO for the insight. That is exactly what I did. But two guys I flew with also checked in early. But they are married and have flown since 9-11. So I wonder what the Feds are keeping in their database.

I will fly again for sure, because, I enjoy travel, and I really get a kick out of getting in a window seat and watching the wing work and marveling at the miracle of flight, seeing the reshaping that Americans have done to their landscape, but the profiling bugged me, and the twice fold check really bugged me. That just seemed lame and silly.

No matter, it won't keep me from going from place to place at 500MPH at 37,000 feet. YES. I love to fly.
 
I flew in September from O'Hare to Las Vegas, during an "Orange Alert." I had to travel on short notice and so I purchased two one-way tickets on different airlines because it was cheaper than a round-trip ticket. At O'Hare, I was the first to check in at the gate and the last to board. Before boarding, I was asked to step to the side and my carry-on bag was inspected and I was searched. After boarding the plane, my carry-on bag was taken from me and stored down below with the checked luggage. When returning from Las Vegas, I was again taken to the side and searched prior to boarding the plane.

From what I can gather from reading others' posts, I may have been searched because of the one-way tickets, and my carry-on was taken away because I was the last to board. By the way, I am a married white middle-aged anglo-saxon physician, and I have to consent to biannual criminal background checks just to be reappointed to hospital staffs.
 
Don't feel too bad, Brad...

My husband, while traveling under military orders, (sorta incognito, in civvies on a civilian flight) got yanked for a random search.

Luckily, he was able to bypass the search by presenting his orders.

Me? I wasn't so lucky. On another trip to the airport (Chicago), I got pulled aside for a more thorough search after the 6 oz of surgical steel in my rebuilt right shoulder kept setting off the security guy's wand. My medical card stating I was hauling around said surgical steel didn't seem to matter.

I ended up having to strip nekkid to the waist and bare all...thereby showing the extensive surgical scars on my shoulder, before I was permitted to move on.

Part of me was sorta suspicious about the whole thing, as it seems the guards were only selecting women to be searched. Hmmmm......

I never was sure if it was the surgical steel, or the underwire needed to support my "frontal artillery" that freaked out the the airport ninja's magnometer. :D
 
I'll tell you what it is... political correctness run amuck.

Bottomline.. the only people, err majority of people who want to crash planes into building look like arabs - facts are facts.

We have finite resources... to waste them checking people randomly is utter stupidity and offers a good statistical likelyhood
that some bad guys will slip through - far greater then if you
profiled.

I fly on a regular basis - and have many times since 9/11 (as soon as 9/25 that year). I've seen text book terrorist looking
guys get through whilst they pull aside some grandmother or
a business man in a brooks brothers suit, rolex watch and ferrigamo shoes (similar to yourself).

-d
 
My recent experience was in the not good column, too...

Cleveland Hopkins airport....first thing was confirmation number on 'e-ticket' didn't work, so I got "Special Attention" from the ticket agent

Then, I had to wait 30 minutes while they x-rayed my checked baggage, before I got boarding passes.

Got stopped at checkpoint, carry-on bag had "something not identifiable" on x-ray. Airport Insecurity essentially emptied my carry-on bag, did the 'explosive residue' swabs on bag AND my shoes, I got the full Wand treatment. They didn't find anything, and I had to re-pack my carry-on. Airport Insecurity finally decided that the metal bindings on my cruise itenerary books, and/or the can of hair mousse was what triggered the extra attention.

While this was going on, at least 5 'middle eastern' looking young men went right through without even a question.

Then, got 'selected' for more attention at the gate...again with the wand and explosive residue swabs, and they took off with my shoes, returning about 20 minutes later. Wife & sister-in-law were already seated on the plane, while I waited at the gate. A pair of the young middle-eastern guys that were ahead of me in the boarding line again got right on, no questions asked.

MY profile ? ? I am a 50-ish male WASP, 5th generation American on Dad's side, 7th Generation on Mom's side.

Coming back after the cruise was even worse.....I got "Special Attention" from Immigration, Customs, and the same treatment again from Airport Insecurity.

While at Miami airport, waiting for return flight, I was watching what was happening at the next gate, going to New York via Newark Airport....they checked EVERYBODY.

I thougt "...If those folks are going to NYC, maybe the Airport Insecurity buffoons should be GIVING them weapons......"
 
Pre Selected,


Shades of Richard Jewell
Yesterday I heard on the nightly news that the FBI had made up alist of people who were in need of special scruitiny and had been distributing theis list to businesses, and to the airport security screeners. Some of these folks had names that were similar or the same as detainees at Guantanimo bay. Also some of them were white middle class or even upper class folks who had no ties to any foreign concerns at all.

They interviewed a couple of folks and they had no idea why they were on the list.

The FBI has been told to cease and desist by the justice department.
 
My experience

I was also - 'preselected' ; I declared a firearm in Seattle. As soon as I said those words, the counter clerk asked me to repeat, and marked my ticket & my wife's with orange stickers on our tickets. Sure enough, at the gate, everyone with orange stickers got preselected for a thorough search. In fact, I was 'pre selected' at Seattle twice, Newark twice. The 2nd time in Newark was handled less than professionally, he dumped my wife's bag on a table. When he was done, he said 'go ahead' - I said 'As soon as you put all that stuff back in the bag, just the way you found it' He refused - I got in front of him so he couldn't leave, and, in my best drill sergeant voice, at the top of my lungs "M*ther F..... Put those articles back in the >>>>> >>>> bag." Much commotion ensued, airline officials were summoned, security staff rushed, all of them backed me, and Delta begrudgingly made him repopulate my bag. :-)

That was last year, and I haven't flown since, and won't, as long as this nonsense continues.
 
I fly rather frequently and the one thing I have noticed ALOT is that the airport screeners must be looking young, inshape, blondes because that is who I see getting screened more often than other proilfe.
 
"I am an American citizen, not just a citizen but from a family that has been in America since the early 1800's.

I am a white upper middle class professional.

I pay more in taxes than lower middle class Americans make in a year.

The last law I broke was in 1972. A petty traffic ticket.

I am single, a widower. I am 50 years old. I have three children and am a grandfather.

I am a firearms owner with a valid FOID that requires a detailed state and federal background check before I buy a firearm. I am clean and respected. My firearms purchases are approved within 30 seconds. I have no record.

In short, I am an individual that is the backbone of American society."


No offense, Bad Dad, but that doesn't mean jack in today's secure world.

You were preselected based on criteria that has nothing in common with the above. The selection criteria is supposed to be kept hush-hush so I won't talk about it here, but you can probably guess the criteria if you think about your trip.

I know. You aren't the terrorist type. But actually, we all are. Or we all aren't. One common standard is the goal, I believe.
 
I am "randomly" selected for a full luggage screening every time I fly overseas. I have been stopped a searched in every US airport since 1985. I can not fly overseas without adding an extra hour to my arrival time.

I look European. I speak with a midwestern accent. I have never been arrested. I have passed several federal background investigations and seven different state CCW applications. I have no idea while I am on the list. The only upside is that after the search, I have a new very close friend
 
I'm an airline pilot, blond, blue eyed, mid fifties. Every time I fly to or from an assignment, I am searched. Doesn't matter if I'm in or out of uniform.

You have to wonder, with all this effort going into repeatedly searching the same people, if it wouldn't be more effective to search more people once, rather than one person many times.

One good thing: I've upgraded my socks now that everybody is looking at them:)

Windowdressing.
 
Gee, I wonder why no sane person flies anymore?

Now, if we could just remove the federal loans, they'd either wise up or, in the corporate sense, go belly up, which was probably where they belonged before they did the "security" crap.

Of course, we'd have to continue to support the
federal union, which we'll have to do forever, useful or not, but at least we'd break even, I think...


There's an internet: I don't need to go there physically, though sometimes I'd like to.

But who needs the guarenteed crap?
 
I wonder sometimes if it is because I have a FOID that I have been pre-selected. Funny, because I always thought the issuance of a FOID meant you were a responsible citizen. No matter.

Here is a link discussing the subject:

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/11/20/72001.shtml

Suppose you lost your driver's license on your trip and on the way back you presented your FOID as "government issued" picture ID. Wonder what would happen then?

On the trip I was pre-selected on, I had no carry on. So, they had little to check, and the only thing the wand picked up was my belt buckle and zipper (and the zipper was patted down by a back hand). Imagine what the security agent might have done if the pretty girl next to me being "pre-selected" had caused me to be excited? Would that have been considered a dangerous weapon?

But seriously, I honestly think it would be much more valuable to profile people like the Israeli's do. They have not had a successful hi-jacking since they started this program.

And one last thing. Nothing that was done to me, search wise, prevented me from taking a ceramic knife on board the plane. So the whole thing, after hearing some of the other TFLers experience, in retrospect, seems rather stupid.

But it won't keep me from flying.
 
"Imagine what the security agent might have done if the pretty girl next to me being "pre-selected" had caused me to be excited? Would that have been considered a dangerous weapon?

BDB, You would certainly have been considered a hardend criminal!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top