The next time you have to take off your shoes and get searched by an employee of the Transportation Security Administration, it may not be at the airport.

Business Insider

The TSA Is Expanding Its Reach Far Beyond Airport Security

Paul Szoldra Aug. 6, 2013, 9:04 PM 

TSA

TSA VIPR team members in Memphis, Tenn.

Ron Nixon reports in The New York Times on the expansion of TSA's Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response squads, or VIPR, which are leaving the airports behind to perform security checks at train stations, subway stops, and other transportation-related hubs.
Created in the wake of the 2004 Madrid train bombing, VIPR teams — comprised of explosives experts, behavioral detection officers, and canine handlers — work with local law enforcement to move through crowds and randomly stop passengers and ask questions.
Perhaps more surprising is their reach into places you wouldn't really expect: Rodeos, music festivals, and sporting events. Their expansion has civil liberties groups pushing back on what they call warrantless searches with no probable cause.


Read More Here

Related articles

• Ma'am, I'm from VIPR and you'll have to remove those spurs and show me what's under your chaps
• Armed Tsa Agents Now Patrolling the Streets
• TSA's armed VIPR-squad sweeps spreading outside airports
• T.S.A. Expands Duties Beyond Airport Security
• TSA expands role beyond airports amid growing cases of misconduct from RT.com
• TSA Eagerly Expands Beyond Airports
• T.S.A.'s armed VIPR squads conducting random sweeps at sporting events, music festivals, and train depots; says the warrantless "administrative" searches are exempt from propbable cause
• NAZI SS Style TSA VIPR Teams Infesting Public Venues and Transport
• The TSA: Now Guarding Music Festivals?