Paging Miss Nomer

In criminal law, the phrase ‘pat down’ originated from a case called Terry v. Ohio. The litigation not only created a new word but defined allowable behavior of a police officer.


No, the new word is not enhanced.


It is simply a pat down or frisk. Most of us have seen it. A police officer briefly stops a suspect. If the Officer believes the suspect might be armed and poses a risk of danger to anyone, including the officer, the officer is allowed to conduct a limited search for weapons. This is sometimes referred to as a frisk. It is not designed to discover evidence but to quickly ascertain whether the suspect is carrying a weapon.

We have all seen the cop standing a suspect up against a wall. It’s a pat down or a frisk or a terry stop.  It’s not enhanced or special or improved. Just a pat down. I admit that even with police officers, some are better than others in the art of performing the pat down or frisk. It’s a very quick patting or light slapping (without the hurt) of the hands against the suspects body. Just enough to feel an object like a gun or knife. Not to the point of knowing what they had for dinner.

So what are we really doing at the airport? Do we really want to know?

Many years ago when I was no longer termed a “rookie”, I was involved in the undercover narcotics operations. Some things I wish I could forget. But the education aspect still sticks to me. If you are going to testify in court, make sure you followed the law. Is it really worth it to stick your hands down suspect’s pants to find a nickel bag? I say not. Because If you go ahead and remove or even just rearrange some clothing on a person which likely will permit a visual inspection of a person’s private areas or undergarments, you have just performed a strip search. Toward the end of my law enforcement career, I was the official who had to approve these. I can say with pride that at least we took the fourth amendment very seriously.

Just remember what courts of law have said about strip searches:

“They represent a significant invasion of privacy and are often a humiliating, degrading and traumatic experience for individuals subject to them. Clearly, the negative effects of a strip search can be minimized by the way in which they are carried out, but even the most sensitively conducted strip search is highly intrusive."

So what are the TSA officers actually doing to us? (Don’t you dare say enhanced.) 

Administrative Search. Nothing else and nothing new.