Reports on BDO questions in Boston

There is a report here of the type of questions being asked at the Boston airport by the phrenologists behavior detection officers, and these are reported to be:

1. Final destination.
2. Reason in Boston.
3. How long in Boston.
4. Name of employer.
5. Type of work.

R.P. McMurphy would of course answer all of these with "Your wife."

 

Answers:

1: When? Today? Tomorrow? When I return home?
2: Business.
3: When did my plane land and what time is it now?
4: How is that any business of yours? Do you want to purchase any metal forming equipment? No? I am on the clock and have a place to be.
5: Field service.

 

Answers:
1. Heaven - God willing
2. Pursuit of Happiness
3. I don't know.
4. Self employed
5. Honest

 

Name, Rank, and Serial Number. That's all I'd give them.

Technically, Name, Sex, and DoB as required by 49 CFR § 1540.107(b)(2), but yeah, that's all they'd get.

 

Are these being asked before or after the TDC? If before, I assume we have to obligation to answer?

 

Most people assume they have an obligation to answer. I doubt we do, but so far no one's put it to the test.

 

There is absolutely no obligation to answer as there is no CFR that states it is mandatory, just as there is no CFR that requires passengers to produce ID for the TSA - it's all made up by the TSA.

See

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/16971132-post287.html

for a comprehensive review of alleged ID requirements by TSA.

 

A CFR that requires passengers to produce ID for the TSA would be unconstitutional. TSA has been hedging around this for years.

Answering BDO questions would be fuzzier given that the "right to remain silent" only applies to criminal matters. At the checkpoint point, this would surely mean a through grope & luggage examination.

Within the sterile area, I expect there will be some backlash if/when they start having non-cooperative respondents detained for their amusement.

 

If I have this correct, then the only motivation to answer BDO questions would be aversion to groping. Meaning if someone doesn't give a damn about gropedowns (or, like me and some other TUGgers, is concerned with making TSA think we don't care about groping in order to jerk the scan-promoting rug out from under their feet) there's no incentive at all to cooperate since they still can't stop you from flying if they clear you of WEI.

 

Gotcha.. Just like more people think they are obligated to go through the porno o scanner.

I have no plans to travel to Boston, so I'm hoping that I don't run into this non sense at another airport.

 

In certain lines of work, the employee has an obligation to report anybody that gets too inquisitive about what the employee does for a living, where he works, etc. Said report goes to a different department of the Government... and they DO investigate .

Make that screener's life miserable

---
yautjalady

 

Don't know if it was sanctioned, or just an overzealous screener, but I was given the 3rd degree at SNA earlier this week. I specifically chose that airport, though my NRSA chances of getting out of it were demonstrably thinner than other LA-area options, to avoid NoS.

The TDC was very demanding of information. Because it was not a home port, and it was late, I was short, curt, and abrasive in my responses. After the 3rd question, the first three, loud enough for the line behind me to hear:

1. I see the last name on your BP is "LastName", and the first name?
2. Are you a resident, or just passing through? (note, I did not have a CA DL)
3. Who is the employee?

And so, after he asked how long they had been an employee I said, "I couldn't tell you." What airline do they work for? "I don't remember." What do they do? "Since you have no way to verify that information, can we be done with this nonsense?"

He then wanted to have a friendly little chat about his previous career at US. After Question 2 I never made eye contact, so mid-sentence I cleared my throat, held out my hand, and started to walk away as he handed me back my BP and DL.

Oh, and I saw something, too, for which I'm going to say something to the DHS IG. A screener who had just ended her shift, used her ID and uniform to bypass security and escort what appeared to be her son through. Once through she changed her shirt and gave him back his bag that had not been screened. Turns out he was also NRSA. Too bad for him he was the only one without a seat. Good for us though, because no one knows what was in the bag his mom circumvented around security for him...

 

I also do some NRSA flying, so I know how things can be with TSA

As far as the A.S.S., I'd have contacted a LEO asap. That should be a fire-able offense, if not a breach of her SIDA badge.

 

It was 9 at night and I was 3rd on the list for 1 seat. It was also the.last.flight out of SNA, so I couldn't do anything proactively.

 

I understand. I wonder if there's a way to check the CCTV tapes... Unless they've already been deleted

 

Oh, I don't doubt it. That's OK, I took pictures...

 

Care to share?

 

Yes, this would be great.

 

This may be spreading west. At BDL yesterday there were two people manning the TDC podium. The first, closest to me was a sort of grizzled old fellow, like a homeless guy on the corner but clean and in a uniform. The other was younger and I will call him Mr. Serious.

Yesterday was not a good day. I am hearing impaired and some days are worse than others. Yesterday was worse. I decided that I was not up to a NEXUS challenge so I wimped out and used my DL.

I handed off my BP and DL and then Mr. Serious went to work. I think he said, "I need to ask you a few questions." I replied, "I am hearing impaired, so if you are going to ask me questions, I may not understand what you are asking."

This seemed to catch him off guard, as if there was nothing in the SOP to deal with this possibility. He started to check off the DL against the BP while Mr. Grizzled looked at him with that "what are you gonna do now?" look.

Mr. Grizzled said something to Mr. Serious. I am guessing "Let me try something." Famous last words from where I am from so we will go with that.

Mr Grizzled smiles, looks at me directly so I can understand as much as possible and asks "(do you like) Bourbon?" or maybe it was "(do you drink) Bourbon?" Whatever, all I got was "Bourbon."

I smile and say, "Wild Turkey 101."

This satisfied Mr. Serious. Why I do not know. Maybe terrorists do not drink Bourbon or if they do it is not WT 101. Maybe it was the wrong answer for the question and he realized I really could not hear. Maybe, and I guess this is it, the questions can be general and not specific personal questions if all they are trying to do is judge the reaction. No matter the reason, they pointed me to the WTMD line, the BXS was roped off, and I was on my way. My bag did get a very good secondary. This is approaching 100% lately, up from the 50%-60% percent that it used to be.

 

Cool.

If I have to fly right now (haven't since last Dec.) I might stash my hearing aids in my carryon and hand the guy a pen & some paper after the first miscommunication.