Pitfalls in airport security

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 13:15:42 -0400
> From: Truchaos () aol com
> Subject: Pitfalls in airport security
> To: dave () farber net
>
>
> http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/6511711.htm
>
> ********************************************************
>
> Dropped pants bare pitfalls in airport security
> BY DANIEL de VISE AND WANDA J. DeMARZO
> ddevise () herald com
>
>
>
>
> STRIPTEASE OR SEARCH?: Martin Holness at lawyer's office. Holness, 34, 
> says an overzealous security guard ordered him to remove his pants and 
> then fed them through an X-ray machine at a checkpoint as the humiliated 
> passenger and scores of bystanders looked on. CANDACE WEST/HERALD STAFF
>
>
> Martin Holness wore gray-and-black boxer shorts to Fort 
> Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport for his trip to Chicago on July 
> 17. And that was a fact he hoped to keep to himself.
>
> But by the time Holness boarded the American Airlines flight, his choice 
> of undergarments was known to many.
>
> Holness, 34, says an overzealous security guard ordered him to remove his 
> pants and then fed them through an X-ray machine at a checkpoint as the 
> humiliated passenger and scores of bystanders looked on.
>
> ''I'm standing in my underwear, looking stupid,'' said Holness, a truck 
> driver from Miramar. ``Even when I got to Chicago, people from the flight 
> were still looking at me like I was crazy.''
>
> The guard gives a very different account. He says Holness pulled down his 
> own sweat pants and handed them to the incredulous guard after two 
> quarters in one pocket set off the metal detector.
>
> However Holness and his pants became separated, the episode illustrates 
> what can happen at airport security checkpoints when things get out of hand.
>
> ''Occasionally, we have people who are short of patience and we understand 
> that,'' said Lauren Stover, spokeswoman for the Transportation Security 
> Administration, the agency responsible for airport checkpoint security. 
> ``The two pillars of our organization are providing the highest level of 
> security and also, at the same time, providing good customer service.''
>
> Pilots, flight attendants, American Muslims, business executives and even 
> members of Congress have reported intrusive searches by security personnel 
> since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which raised the bar for admission 
> to a passenger aircraft.
>
> Most observers agree relations between passengers and wand-wavers have 
> improved since the federal agency took over passenger screening at all 
> major U.S. airports, a transition completed in November.
>
> But here and there, complaints persist.
>
> Holness said his trouble began when he set off a walk-through metal 
> detector at the Fort Lauderdale airport. A wand beeped as it passed over 
> his pants pocket. But Holness found nothing in the pocket. He invited the 
> guard to feel around in the pocket and contends the guard did just that. 
> Still nothing.
>
> 'I said, `What do you want me to do?' '' Holness recalled. 'He said, `Why 
> don't you take your pants off?' . . . I said, 'Are you for real? Take my 
> pants off?' ''
>
> Holness says he complied, but under protest. ``I asked them, `Don't you 
> have a room for this? Some curtains?''
>
> He said the guard assured him he would have his pants back before he 
> missed them. The guard fed the pants through the X-ray machine, found the 
> offending quarters, then returned the quarters and the pants.
>
> The security guard says it was Holness who caused the spectacle. According 
> to a written incident report, Holness lost his composure after setting off 
> the metal detector, barked that he had ''nothing to hide'' and removed his 
> own pants without provocation.
>
> The guard told him, ''No, sir, that is not necessary,'' the report stated, 
> but Holness ignored him, handed him the pants and said, ``Why don't you 
> just X-ray them?''
>
> Stover, the TSA spokeswoman, said it was the first incident on record of a 
> commercial air passenger spontaneously disrobing.
>
> ''I'm 100 percent confident that we did not ask this man to take his pants 
> off in full view of the public,'' Stover said. ``Apparently, he was very 
> frustrated, and we understand that.''
>
> Stover said multiple witnesses corroborate the security guard's account. 
> But the agency conceded he should have summoned a supervisor well before 
> the incident escalated to the point where the gloves -- or pants -- came 
> off. The guard has been reprimanded and dispatched for more 
> customer-service training, Stover said.
>
> Dr. Louis Keith, a professor at Northwestern University Medical School who 
> saw the episode, sides with the incensed passenger.
>
> ''An agent from TSA put his hands in the man's pockets, then I saw [the 
> agent] take off his pants,'' Keith said.
>
> The doctor says he heard Holness ask the guard, ''What are you doing?'' 
> but got no reply.
>
> ''As a traveler, I don't think that is the way travelers want to be 
> treated,'' Keith said. ``We're at their mercy. That is the issue.''
>
> Holness made a verbal complaint to a TSA supervisor before he boarded the 
> flight. Attorney Clement Dean said Holness is considering legal action. 
> ''Martin was standing up, in public, with his underwear on,'' Dean said. 
> ``And this was while women and children were walking by.''

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