I once had a strange experience where, after taking a drink of water from a Camelbak bottle, a police officer asked me if he could see my water bottle. He was about 15 away, at the corner, waiting to turn left at a stoplight. I handed him the bottle, he opened it, smelled it, and made some comment about how it's illegal to have an open container of alcohol in public. It was summer, evening, and still light outside.<p>I remember being so caught of guard that I never even realized I was consenting to a government search until it was over. The officer was so conversational in his tone that I had no idea why in the world he would want to see my water bottle. Afterwards I regretted not refusing the search as it would have been an easy opportunity to stand up for my own constitutional rights. In the future, I can only imagine I will be on guard, treat any police officer with suspicion and only cooperative as much as is necessary.
I find this fragment really insightful. Seems like it's a common mistake in a lot of domains.<p>"Over the last fifteen years or so, many police agencies started capturing data on police interactions. The primary purpose was to document what had historically been undocumented: informal street contacts. By capturing specific data, we were able to ask ourselves tough questions about potentially biased-policing. Many agencies are still struggling with the answers to those questions.<p>Regardless, the data permitted us to detect problematic patterns, commonly referred to as passive discrimination. This is a type of discrimination that occurs when we are not aware of how our own biases affect our decisions. This kind of bias must be called to our attention, and there must be accountability to correct it."
I love how people try to be logical about all this. There is no logic, it's nutcases vs power-trippers.<p>Here's the reality - it's not IF but WHEN the next nut gets through TSA with something else, not something new, but something they were supposed to be looking for in the first place. These are all slackers on a power-trip, who else would apply for such a job?<p>So what are they going to invent next to harass everyone? How exactly are they going to do cavity searches, or is this step meant to get us accepting enough for the next level?<p>The next idiot might hijack a private corporate jet with no security, and that's going to make an interesting battle of corporate lobbyists for "freedom" vs. power-tripping security theater hiding behind "keeping you safe".
<i>"I believe what we have here is the beginning of the end of complacency. It is now apparent to me that in the haste to ensure compliance with procedures that are inconsistent if not inarticulable, TSA has hastened the likelihood of failure."</i><p>It's interesting this was written a year ago and only now are we starting to exert our right to refuse.
My guess as to why she's "randomly selected" so much is the way she holds herself. Having been a cop, she probably has much different body language from everyone else.