I received a telephone call from a friend who was at Pittsburgh International Airport earlier today and said that he witnessed agents of the Transportation Security Administration conducting random searches on passengers who were already qualified to use the TSAPre✓ line at the security checkpoint; and he asked if I had heard anything about this.
“No, I have not,” I responded.
“Well, I was not selected for a random search; but I asked an agent if searching people in the TSA Pre✓ line made sense — and he could not answer.”
“To be fair, the agents are simply following orders,” I replied, “but I will check around and see if there are other cases of this happening.”
He frustratingly opined as to what was the point of paying $85.00 and going through the process of applying and being approved if they are going to conduct random searches anyway.
No logical response came to my mind.
Random Searches in the TSA Pre✓ Line?
I did a cursory check of the Checkpoints and Borders Policy Debate forum on FlyerTalk; and the discussion with the closest topic which I could find is that agents of the Transportation Security Administration are supposedly once again conducting random searches at the gate areas of the terminals in airports.
I then found this discussion — which was launched last month — pertaining to random checks on people who already qualified for the Global Entry program. There were a few FlyerTalk members who claim to have endured a random search of some type — despite having already been qualified for what are known as “trusted traveler” programs — but those incidents seem more like anomalies than a trend.
After that, I did find this discussion pertaining to random extra screening in the TSA Pre✓ line; but that was from almost two years ago. Perhaps this has been ongoing on a wildly inconsistent basis for years?
A search was then conducted by me at the forums of InsideFlyer; but I found no discussions pertaining to this topic.
Other
Summary
I personally have not experienced any random searches or checks whenever I am in the TSA Pre✓ line at airport security checkpoints; so I am turning to you: have you experienced a random search or check at an airport security checkpoint by an agent of the Transportation Security Administration while already qualified as a “trusted traveler” — or, at least, have you heard of a similar occurrence happening to another passenger?
If incidents such as the one imparted by my friend are actually happening, that would render the term trusted traveler to be a rather ironic misnomer, in my opinion — and it would be one more reason as to why I believe that the TSA Pre✓ program should ultimately be eliminated…
