FSP-Microcosm News-Global Community Report: TSA

Showing posts with label TSA. Show all posts

Friday, May 2, 2014

TSA agrees to pay $75,000 in settlemed to a mom held for hours after asking for alternative screening other than radiation scanner for breast milk.

Mom held in airport for hours after refusing to let TSA x-ray her breast-milk gets $75,000 in legal settlement

Published: 17:14 EST, 23 April 2014 | Updated: 19:41 EST, 23 April 2014

A Southern California woman who was held at a Phoenix airport four years ago after refusing to have her breast milk X-rayed said Wednesday she has reached a tentative settlement with the Transportation Security Administration.
Stacey Armato, who filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, said TSA officials have tentatively offered her $75,000, along with promises to retrain agents and clarify its guidelines on screening breast milk.
The reassurances about revised training and rules were more important than the monetary compensation, she said.

Refused: Stacey Armato of Hermosa Beach, California, was held at a Phoenix airport in 2010 after refusing to have her breast milk for son Lorenzo, pictured, x-rayed

'We had been waiting for them to really kind of confirm that they would be retraining everybody and making these policy updates," Armato said. "When we finally got confirmation of that, that was really reassuring.'
TSA spokesman Ross Feinstein declined to comment on a "pending matter." He confirmed that current TSA regulations classify breast milk as liquid medication. As a result, parents are permitted to bring an amount larger than the 3 ounces normally allotted for liquids.
According to the agency's website, officers now use a bottled liquid scanner system in most airports to screen medically necessary liquids for explosives or other threats. The system uses lasers, infrared or electromagnetic resonance, rather than X-rays.
That was not an option at the time for Armato, who said she was accustomed to having a visual inspection for breast milk when traveling.
Armato, of Hermosa Beach, said she asked for an alternate screening of her breast milk at a security checkpoint at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Feb. 1, 2010. She cited concerns about exposing the milk to radiation.
According to a 2013 complaint from Armato, agents denied her request and then detained her in a glass enclosure for 40 minutes.

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Saturday, August 10, 2013

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.

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