KBCraig wrote:As Kalrog said, that wasn't forced, it was something you voluntarily agreed to as a condition of employment.
If you'd said no, they could have refused to hire you. If you'd refused after being hired, they could have fired you. But in either case, they couldn't have searched you or your private belongings without either your consent, or a warrant.
Just like the job you worked: as a TSA screener, you didn't search anyone without their consent (no matter how grudging or coerced). They always had the option to refuse, and leave.
I also have to point out that TSA are not LEOs, for the very reason I mentioned earlier: LEOs are bound by the 4th Amendment and all current court rulings about the scope of searches. Boarding a plane, coming to work, etc., is neither Probable Cause nor Reasonable Articulable Suspicion so that a LEO would be legally allowed to search.
If you ever attend an event where you must pass through security to enter, you might notice that the security screening is done by private security, but there are LEOs standing by watching. The private guard can turn to the LEO and tell him, "Look, I found a gun!", which then gives the LEO PC/RAS to arrest and/or search further.
It may not have been "forced" but it was most certainly coerced. We were hired, and started our training before being told that signing certain papers were a condition of employment, and if we didn't sign we would be fired and possibly prosecuted. Of course we were not actually told what we would be prosecuted for, just a reference to some US Code, which did not seem to apply when several of us looked it up. The papers were presented to us in the rush of training and orientation and there was little or no explanation given, just that we would not
continue to be employed by TSA if they were not signed, not that we would not be emplyed, but that we would not continue.
Many of the "recruits" were, like myself, ex-telecomm techies who had been out of work for long periods of time (my unemployment had long since run out) and we felt cornered into signing, particularly with the threat of some sort of criminal prosecution hanging over our heads.
If we were given the option before we signed the original employment paper and took the oath, then I would agree that it was voluntary, but coming as it did, after administration of the oath and signing what amounted to enlistment papers, it was way less than voluntary. It was almost like their non-compliance with Texas law, where a private security company barred CHLs from carrying in the facility, a private hotel conference center, because they were the Federal Govenrment and they said so. TSA played fast and loose with legalities, knowing that they could get away with it.
As far as TSA searches were concerned, we were still bound by all the rules that LEOs are, including the scope of searches, which is why, among other things, finding controlled substances in carry on bags is routinely ignored. We even took passes on guns spotted in checked bags, even if they were not declared (which we had no mechanism in place to know) as long as the bag otherwise was clear.
Any passenger who got past a certain line, or any bag that made it to a certain point, was going to get searched, permission notwithstanding, or it would be considered PC/RAS for the passenger to be detained and interviewed by a LEO, implied consent having taken place at the line and refusal no longer being an option, and the passenger and bag were going to get the fine toothed comb treatment, so "always" is not applicable. TSA's stand was that anyone who got that far had had plenty of chances to reconsider and that the sudden change of heart was suspicious in and of itself.
We had one "gentleman" who put his briefcase on the carry on screening belt, and at the last second realized that his carry gun was inside it. As the screener who was running the x-ray spotted the gun and called out his alarm, this worthy went so far as to try to reach into the machine to get his case back, but he had crossed the line of no return, and ended up with a nice set of matching silver bracelets in honor of his being too stupid to fly. I don't know the final outcome, but I do know he left the airport in a patrol car and his bags were all subjected to very minute inpection - including the locked ones, and they also left the airport in a patrol car. I do wish I knew the final disposition of that one.
Unless we get a raise soon, bagging groceries will surpass our wage by next summer, so I'm not really worried about the money.