STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Maat · Kenneth Cole

Random airport searches rant

zeitgeist4 · Gucci

Yes, it is completely unsafe how they check sometimes.

About 10 years ago, before all the hightened security, I was at an airport to greet someone arriving and was wearing a jacket like this.

I went through the metal detector, and of course it beeped. The security person had me take off the jacket and hand it to her, then go back through the metal detector again. The jacket was what made it beep, but the lady DID NOT even inspect it/feel it. I could have had knives sewn into the lining, or cocaine in the pockets and the lady didn't even check.

kisa · Dooney & Bourke

Could you explain this random airport search thing to me? When do they do it? How do they choose people? Where do they do it? When did they start doing it? I've never seen it before!

Maat · Kenneth Cole

kisa wrote:

Could you explain this random airport search thing to me? When do they do it? How do they choose people? Where do they do it? When did they start doing it? I've never seen it before!

I think they've always done it, but they started doing it a lot more after the events of 9/11. They select people randomly. You will know you are selected if you print out your boarding pass and it says SSSS on the bottom. When you go through the area where they screen your carry-on luggage and you before you go to your gate, they pull you aside for extra searching if you were selected. I always thought when you were selected that they did a really thorough check of your stuff-dumping out your bag and bringing in the dogs and stuff, but actually they did a really superficial search. They took one big item each time (my brush one time and my camera the next) and just looked inside my bag without moving anything around.

Shello · Kenneth Cole

I've been randomly searched too, and I hate to say it, but I think a lot of times they make judgments about you before they begin the search and are as thorough as they feel is necessary. My experience was very much like yours - they opened my suit case, moved a sweatshirt, and put it right back and zipped it up again and didn't check anything else. I have a feeling though it's because I was a 14 year old Caucasian girl and they didn't think there was a need to check everything. If I was a 20-something person of Arabic descent, (or even Indian, as I have a lot of Indian friends who are mistaken for people of Arabic descent), they may have kept me a lot longer. It may not be right, but it probably saves them some time.