(MintPress) – After having her breasts and genitals groped by a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent, a woman who formerly worked as a TSA agent in south Florida was arrested for protesting what her lawyers are calling an extremely inappropriate search.
Airline passenger Carol Price was traveling to attend her brother’s funeral in Ohio last week when she says she was inappropriately touched by a TSA screener conducting a routine search.
Price, a former TSA agent herself who has been trained in how to properly conduct such searches, says the pat down she received at the Southwest Florida International Airport was a violation of protocol.
As cases of inappropriate behavior by TSA agents are becoming more commonplace, a new bill in Congress is now considering how to best address the problem.
What video footage reveals
Video footage from the airport security cameras show Price, who was upset over the treatment, approaching a TSA supervisor to lodge a complaint. Price places her carry on baggage down and attempts to physically demonstrate what had happened to her on the supervisor. The supervisor says she did not have permission to do so.
John D. Mills, Price’s attorney, says “it was a customer complaint of an extremely inappropriate search, but she did not touch the supervisor as intrusively as she was touched,” in an interview with an NBC affiliate in Florida.
Price was removed from the flight and taken to jail, causing her to miss her brother’s funeral. She is now facing misdemeanor battery charges.
The TSA has said that “the patdown was conducted correctly and in accordance with our procedures. Violence against our officers who work everyday to keep the traveling public safe is unacceptable,” NBC 2 reported.
Price, who worked at the airport previously, believes the pat down was personal. She has said that she got along with some but not all of her co-workers there.
A trial is set for July in the case
TSA misconduct sparks debate
Incidents involving inappropriate behavior by TSA agents are not a new phenomenon.
In late 2011, another airline passenger, Jill Filipovic, unpacked her suitcase and found a note from the TSA inside, notifying her that an inspection of her suitcase had been carried out.
While the TSA routinely places such notes inside items that have undergone inspection, a TSA agent had handwritten the message “Get your freak on girl” on the paper, after apparently finding an adult toy in her luggage.
Filipovic tweeted a photo of the note and notified TSA officials.
The TSA launched an investigation, said that they found the individual responsible for writing the note and said that the employee was removed from federal service, according to the TSA’s official blog. “The handwritten note was highly inappropriate and unprofessional, and TSA has zero tolerance for this type of behavior. Agency officials have also reached out to the passenger to personally apologize for this unfortunate incident,” the agency said.
Thomas Cameron, airline passenger and former police officer wrote on the TSA’s blog in response to the incident, “I calmly explain every time I go through an airport with back-scatter that I believe that it is an invasion of my privacy and a violation of the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I’m civil and do not make any personal attacks. I’ve had TSA agents square off as if preparing to hit me, insult me, loudly and publicly deride me as if I were an idiot. For defending the Constitution. Oh, and having the audacity to exercise my 1st Amendment right to free speech…I’m not some hippy left-wing nutjob. I’m a pretty conservative former police officer who comes from a long line of men who have served in military and law enforcement positions. I’m very much pro-law and order. I believe I’m a patriot, and I certainly love what this country is supposed to be. I just don’t think it is what it was founded to be any more. A lot of why I think that is because of heavy-handed tactics like those of the TSA.”
And in February of this year, a Dallas woman said TSA agents repeatedly asked her to step back and forth into a body scanner at the DFW International Airport.
“I feel like I was totally exposed,” Ellen Terrell told a CBS affiliate in Dallas. “They wanted a nice good look.”
Terrell says an agent asked her if she played tennis. When she asked “Why?” she was told by the agent “You just have such a cute figure.” Terrell did not file a complaint because she said she did not know she had that option.
CBS 11 in Dallas found more than 500 records of TSA complaints indicating a pattern of women who believed that there was nothing random about the way they were selected for extra screenings.
Congress aims to curb inappropriate TSA agent behavior
After many other women have stepped forward to complain that they were targets of extra screenings like the one Terrell received (which TSA says it conducts anonymously), new legislation is being introduced in Congress to curb inappropriate TSA behavior.
Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) said in May that they planned to introduce legislation to create “passenger advocates” to help people who may be “inappropriately treated” by TSA agents.
“While passengers across the country have raised concerns over screening procedures, particularly women and the elderly, the TSA has yet to establish on site advocates for travelers to turn when they feel they have been or will be subjected to inappropriate or degrading screening procedures — that will all change with this bill,” Schumer said at a press conference in March.
Schumer reached out the TSA in December to establish passenger rights advocates themselves in December after three elderly women complained of being touched inappropriately. When the failed to act on his request, he and Collins announced the pending bill, the Restoring Integrity and Good-Heartedness in Traveler Screening (RIGHTS) Act.
“We hear often of the inconsistent and illogical treatment of everything from cupcakes to medical devices by TSA personnel and inappropriate screening of elderly, young, or infirmed individuals,” Collins said. “My hope is that Passenger Advocates will help add some common sense to the screening process.”
The bill is currently awaiting debate.