The TSA and Me

I appeared on the TSA Watch List about a year after it came into existence soon after 9/11. Every time I was flagged and delayed, I repeatedly raised holy hell with everyone in the entire chain: Ticket counter agent, manager, TSA rep, and occasionally even my Representative in Congrees and my Senator. After about 9 months of this, to remove me from the list.the TSA asked me to submit an extensive form to provide MORE data, which I refused to do. This form was actually longer and more detailed than the forms I submitted for my security clearances with multiple US government agencies! If they couldn't even connect those dots, they certainly didn't deserve to get MORE information from me. It was their data that was bad, it was entered without my participation or consent, and I had no reason to help them fix their mess. In fact, I had every incentive to make their errors as costly as possible for as long as possible, to encourage them to get a system that WORKED. So I simply arrived for each flight 90 minutes earlier than normal, and made a great display of enjoying each new episode of Security Theater (thanks to Bruce Schneier for that term) I made sure that everyone else in line knew full well why things were slowed up, and why there was one less agent than needed. I finally did learn how I got on the list: Back in the early days, ANY law enforcement department could add ANYONE to the Watch List. A few months before I landed on the list, a police officer had made a complete mess of an otherwise simple traffic stop, and I had embarrassed him by getting his shift supervisor called to the scene to explain the law and his mistake to him.

I still got a ticket, which I forced to go to trial, which was dismissed when the officer failed to appear (meaning there was no testimony to any infraction of the law). I then wrote a letter to everyone in that officer's chain of command, including my local city government, requesting that the officer be removed from traffic duty and be given a simpler assignment until remedial training had been administered and passed (there is NO police duty simpler than traffic!).

Yeah, I may have pissed-off a few people. Or many. But the TSA eventually did change their Watch List input system, and did improve their screening. After about 3 years (total) I finally fell off the list. I suspect my record there now says something like: "NEVER add this asshole back to the list!" My work as a dutiful citizen? Achievement Unlocked!

But what about whoever made that bad entry in the first place?  What about nailing them to the wall and making them pay?

Believe me, that kind of follow-up was on my mind.  But it would have started to become vindictive and revenge-oriented.  Instead, I chose to treat it as part of the post-9/11 learning curve for everyone from that officer all the way up to the TSA.

Those were terrible times for so many people, and at some point we simply have to get past the simple fact that "mistakes were made".  And, after all, the system DID change.  Perhaps not enough overall, but certainly where it got in my face.

I want to emphasize that I only found out the entry was done by my local city police department.  I know the time and date, but have no login ID for reference, so it could have been anyone in the chain of pain I created due to the sloppy traffic stop.  I don't even know if the department had just a single shared TSA login or not.  I suspect the officer himself would want to keep a low profile, so perhaps a clerk or superior acted in support.  I can't know for sure.

The temptation was there for me to hold a blowtorch to every link in that chain, but I had to accept that any further "righteous indignation" would likely do me more harm (in the form of ulcers and time lost) than good (getting people punished who made bad use of a bad system).  Plus, the TSA did lots of "remedial input training" as part of their cleanup process, and thousands of bad entries were traced back to their origins and investigated.  I have no doubt my TSA interactions may have motivated some extra attention for my bad Watch List entry.

I think it all worked out well, especially since I now get "TSA Pre" on 75% of my flights.