thewayne | TSA extends inspections to some rail and bus stations

"TSA's VIPR program may be expanding. According to the Washington Times, 'TSA has always intended to expand beyond the confines of airport terminals. Its agents have been conducting more and more surprise groping sessions for women, children and the elderly in locations that have nothing to do with aviation.' In Tennessee earlier this month, bus passengers in Nashville and Knoxville were searched in addition to the truck searches discussed here previously. Earlier this year in Savannah, Georgia, TSA forced a group of train travelers, including young children, to be patted down. (They were getting off the train, not on.) Ferry passengers have also been targeted. According to TSA Administrator John Pistole's testimony before the Senate last June, 'TSA conducted more than 8,000 VIPR operations in the [previous] 12 months, including more than 3,700 operations in mass-transit and passenger-railroad venues.' He wants a 50% budget increase for VIPR for 2012. Imagine what TSA would do with the extra funding." (emphasis mine)

The TSA: coming soon to a street corner near you!

I drive through Border Patrol check points a few times a month since I live less than a hundred miles from the border with Mexico. A few years ago they installed what I have been told are radiation detectors and they probably have optical cameras with crazy bright lights, I have to hold my hand up to screen my eyes when driving through them at night or it would be totally blinding. The station closest to my house reduces traffic to a single lane, so naturally they install a second, identical set of radiation detectors. Fortunately they're spaced far enough apart that I can change which hand is screening my eyes safely. Now they've added a backscatter x-ray van at the station just outside of White Sands National Monument, I asked them and they don't use it all the time, which makes me wonder just how useful it actually is. But the check point west of Las Cruces doesn't merit a backscatter van and they actually wave traffic through without asking the perfunctory question of "Are you a U.S. citizen?" They do normally have a K-9 and handler and apparently they intercept a lot of drug shipments at that site.

http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/10/28/1921254/tsas-vipr-bites-rail-bus-and-ferry-passengers