Earlier this week, the Transportation Security Administration advised that we may see more “comprehensive” pat-downs at airports. Last night, Stephen Colbert’s Late Show team placed these new security checks in a romantic context. [More]
pat downs
Stephen Colbert Puts Romantic Spin On New TSA Pat-Downs; Talks Spying With Former CIA Chief
By 3.8.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
TSA Introducing New, More Invasive Pat-Down Method
By 3.6.17
The next time you go through a pat-down at airport security, things might be a bit different: The Transportation Security Administration has a new, more invasive pat-down procedure that some travelers might find unusual. To that end, the agency is warning local police departments that they may see an uptick in reports related to these up close and personal examinations. [More]
Father Claims 10-Year-Old Daughter Experienced “Uncomfortable” Two-Minute TSA Pat-Down
By 1.6.16
While it’s normal for travelers to undergo additional screening procedures from the Transportation Security Administration when there could be something amiss, the father of a 10-year-old girl says she was made uncomfortable by a two-minute pat-down after she left a juice pouch in her carry-on. [More]
Report: Only 1-In-6 TSA Pat-Downs Done Properly At Newark Airport
By 12.10.12
Pat-downs at airport security checkpoints are meant as alternatives to the controversial full-body scans that are becoming the standard at major air hubs. But a recently uncovered report casts some doubt on whether or not Transportation Security Administration screeners actually know or care about what they are doing when it comes to patting a traveler down. [More]
Homeland Security Hoping To Find Device To Replace Pat-Downs
By 6.4.12
Perhaps the Dept. of Homeland Security is actually listening to all the people who aren’t exactly thrilled with the possibility of being touched by TSA airport screeners. The department is hoping someone out there can come up with a hand-held device that would take the place of the controversial pat-downs. [More]
Texas House Passes Bill To Outlaw TSA Pat-Downs That Make Contact With Your Most Personal Parts
By 5.13.11
As we reported in March, a handful of Texas politicians were fed up with being felt-up and were considering a way to ban the TSA’s invasive pat-down procedures. Last night, that ban got closer to reality — or at least closer to becoming a courtroom battle — when the Lone Star State’s House of Representatives voted to approve legislation that would keep hands off travelers’ most personal areas. [More]
TSA Tries To Explain Need For Patting Down An Infant
By 5.10.11
Over the weekend, TSA agents at the Kansas City International Airport felt the full furor of the internet when a camera phone image of a baby being patted-down hit the web. The world wanted to know if we’d moved from worrying about dirty bombs to hunting for poopy bombs. In an attempt to diffuse the explosive situation, the folks behind the curtains of Security Theater took to their blog to offer an explanation. [More]
Woman At LaGuardia Learns TSA Can Still Pat You Down Even After You Pass Security Checkpoint
By 3.28.11
It’s pretty safe to say that most, if not all, of us aren’t exactly thrilled about having to do the TSA shuffle — remove shoes, take out the laptop, put your keys in the bowl, step on through — at airport security checkpoints. But as one traveler at LaGuardia Airport in NYC learned last week, just because you’ve made it through the checkpoint doesn’t mean you can’t get one hell of a pat-down on your way to the gate. [More]
TSA Body Scanner Tracking Site Gets User-Friendly Makeover
By 2.9.11
The citizen-created site that keeps track of which airports have bodyscanner devices and what their status is just got a big interface makeover. [More]
Which Airports Actually Use Their Body Scanners?
By 12.28.10
Lists of which airports have installed the controversial backscatter screening devices are one thing, but they’re not actually super-useful. An airport might have the screener on site, but that doesn’t mean they’re actually “backscatting” with it. It could be gathering dust or just for hanging coats on. [More]
TSA Head Apologizes To Traveler Whose Bladder Bag Burst During Pat-Down
By 11.23.10
Yesterday, the TSA got yet another public-relations black eye when a man in Michigan said airport screeners in Detroit refused to listen to him about his medical condition and accidentally ruptured a bag full of urine under his clothes. [More]
UPDATE: TSA Says Pilots Can Skip Scanners & Pat-Downs
By 11.19.10
Earlier today, TSA chief John Pistole hinted on Good Morning America that airline pilots might soon be able to skirt the agency’s stricter screening procedures. Now one of the unions that had recently told pilots to refuse being scanned says a deal has actually been reached. [More]
Cancer Survivor Flight Attendant Forced To Show Prosthetic Breast During TSA Pat-Down
By 11.19.10
After 32 years on the job as a flight attendant, not to mention being a breast cancer survivor, a North Carolina woman says airport screeners went too far when they told her to remove her prosthetic breast during a recent pat-down. [More]
Pilots Might Soon Get A Pass On Stricter Security Measures
By 11.19.10
As we wrote last week, two of the nation’s largest airline pilots unions had recently told their members to refuse full-body scanners at airport security, arguing that pilots have already undergone rigorous background checks before getting their jobs. Now the head of the TSA says their could soon be a rule change that would treat pilots differently than passengers. [More]
Penn Says TSA Grabbed His Crotch. It Wasn't Magical.
By 11.18.10
Penn of Penn and Teller went through airport security and got a pat-down. The TSA agent didn’t ask him for permission before touching his crotch so Penn made the cops come down there. In light of recent news, his post about it from 2002 is getting passed around, and it’s an interesting look at how the TSA reacts in a security incident when they’re scared of you, instead of the other way around. [More]
Airports Looking To Replace TSA Screeners With Contractors
By 11.18.10
In case you hadn’t heard, there’s been a slight bit of public push-back to the TSA’s increased use of full-body scanners and invasive pat-downs at security checkpoints. And at least one airport in Florida is telling the TSA “no thanks,” opting to use a private contractor instead. [More]
Group Of Reddit Editors Make Public Stand Against Grabby TSA Pat-Downs & Revealing Full-Body Scanners
By 11.17.10
There are few sites on the internet more tapped into the zeitgeist than the hive mind over at Reddit. So it should come as little surprise to those familiar with Reddit that a group of the site’s editors — or Redditors — have banded together to create a forum for those who feel less than enthusiastic about the TSA’s roll-out of full-body scanners and its “enhanced” pat-down procedures. [More]
TSA Chief Admits The New Pat-Downs Are 'More Invasive'
By 11.17.10
For the second day in a row, TSA head Jon Pistole was testifying before Senate about the recent negative attention that the agency’s full-body scanners and ‘enhanced’ pat-downs have received. And Pistole admitted that the newer, hands-on procedure is more touchy-feely than it had been previously. [More]
