What 4th. Amendment? TSA goons searching valet parked cars at airports and commuters in Penn Station
Rochester, N.Y. -- She says she had no warning that someone was going to search her car after she left to catch her flight. So the woman contacted News10NBC.
We found out it happened to her because she valet parked her car. Those are the only cars that get inspected.
So if security feels it is necessary to search some cars in the name of safety, why not search all of them?
Laurie Iacuzza walked to her waiting car at the Greater Rochester International Airport after returning from a trip and that's when she found it -- a notice saying her car was inspected after she left for her flight. She said, “I was furious. They never mentioned it to me when I booked the valet or when I picked up the car or when I dropped it off.”
Iacuzza's car was inspected by valet attendants on orders from the TSA. But why only valet parked cars? That's what News10NBC wanted to ask the TSA director about. We reached him by phone.
Berkeley Brean asked, “Are the cars in the short term lots and long term lots getting searched as well?”
John McCaffery, TSA, said, “No, those vehicles that are in the garage, short term long term parking, even if they carry pretty large amounts of explosives, they would not cause damage to the front of the airport. But for those who use the valet, the car could be there for a half hour or an hour so there is a vulnerability.”
News10NBC went to the valet parking and one of the attendants showed us the notice they put in the cars.
We asked, “You're required, they tell you, you have to search the car?” Valet Parking Attendant Frank Dettorre said, “I have to do it.”
We also noticed a large sign that alerts customers that their vehicle will be inspected. The sign is on the kiosk window. Iacuzza says it was not there when she dropped off her car. “I think the public should be aware of the fact that if their car is going to be searched, they should be informed of it.”
Iacuzza said she doesn't mind the security measure. She just wants to be told if her car is getting searched.
News10NBC asked the owner of the company that runs the valet parking when they put up the sign but he wouldn't answer.
TSA says this is part of its overall security plan and that it's a proactive move. The attendants said they've only been doing it for about a month.
http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S3101080.shtml?cat=566
TSA is hard at work, protecting air travel from your car freshener:
Much has been made of the Transportation Security Administration's efforts to expand its role beyond airports, to train stations, bus depots, cruise ships and beyond. TSA VIPR teams have played a pivotal role in America's ongoing effort to turn the simple act of traveling into a nostalgia tour through 1970s-era East Germany. So it's no shocker that the TSA has reached just a bit beyond airport terminals, and into neighboring parking lots. News10 of Rochester, New York, reports that drivers who have valets park their cars at the local airport are returning to find that their cars have been tossed at the behest of the TSA.
From News10:
Laurie Iacuzza walked to her waiting car at the Greater Rochester International Airport after returning from a trip and that's when she found it -- a notice saying her car was inspected after she left for her flight. She said, “I was furious. They never mentioned it to me when I booked the valet or when I picked up the car or when I dropped it off.”
Iacuzza's car was inspected by valet attendants on orders from the TSA. But why only valet parked cars? That's what News10NBC wanted to ask the TSA director about. We reached him by phone.
Berkeley Brean asked, “Are the cars in the short term lots and long term lots getting searched as well?”
John McCaffery, TSA, said, “No, those vehicles that are in the garage, short term long term parking, even if they carry pretty large amounts of explosives, they would not cause damage to the front of the airport. But for those who use the valet, the car could be there for a half hour or an hour so there is a vulnerability.”
That makes no sense unless you believe (and it's possible that the TSA does) that all bombs are detonated by sputtering, cartoon-style fuses that take forever to burn down to a keg of black powder. If the TSA is truly worried about car bombs at the curb, all of those private vehicles and taxis making drop-offs and pickups would seem to be of equal concern to cars left with a valet.
(Having written the above, I apologize in advance to all of those air travelers who will soon be forced to park miles from the terminal and walk their luggage in by muscle power alone.)
My guess is that the valet-parked cars alone are searched because the TSA has nominal consent. At least, they're supposed to have something they can interpret as consent. News10 reports, "We also noticed a large sign that alerts customers that their vehicle will be inspected. The sign is on the kiosk window. Iacuzza says it was not there when she dropped off her car. ... News10NBC asked the owner of the company that runs the valet parking when they put up the sign but he wouldn't answer."
Leaving your car with a valet standing by a TSA-sourced sign strikes me as a sketchy grant of consent, but it just might be good enough for a judge, these days.
The TSA told News10 that the car searches are part of an "overall security plan." I've asked the agency how widely this plan is being applied, and to what extent Fourth Amendment concerns have been satisfied.
http://reason.com/blog/2013/07/18/tsa-is-hard-at-work-protecting-air-trave
TSA searching bags in Penn Station, NY:
Article first appeared in TSA Out Of Our Pants:
I have a friend who lives near Penn Station in midtown Manhattan who tells me that she sees the TSA there all the time, but never remembers to take a picture for me. Today, I had the “luck” of seeing it myself…
So, the next time someone says, “I don’t mind surrendering my rights in an airport; anything to keep us safer,” please remind them that the TSA has been plotting for years to invade every mode of transportation. They practice at Penn all the time because the NYPD is happy to join in their totalitarian distopia manufacture. They hit Amtrak stations, Greyhound terminals, music festivals, and political events. For now it’s a bag search. How long until the scanners and pat-downs are a “normal” part of walking down the street?
https://tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/tsa-searching-bags-in-penn-station/