"How I Went Through TSA Security Without Being Scanned or Touched"

reply to post by mryanbrown

You are correct, and that was the problem. As I stated above, a lot of these old airports were laid out so that the customs area dumped you back into the terminal by the gates (a secured area), rather then into the baggage claim area (an unsecured area). However, not allowing him to cross a restricted area without following security protocol is not considered detention, its considered denial of entry. Its simply that you cannot get to where you want to go too, its not that they are holding you.
See:

Unlawful detention means keeping in custody unlawfully. Under criminal law it means keeping or confining a person in custody without any lawful reason.

They were not keeping him in custody, he was free to move about to his hearts content, as long as he did not enter the secured area. The fact that he had to go through the secured area to exit the building does not constitute an arrest, it simply means that his exit was obstructed by something that he was unable to cross without following certain rules. Again this is an Aviation Authority problem as they are responsible for the buildings layout, its not a problem with the TSA, and they were legally not arresting (detaining) him.

There is a good reason for them making folks go through security after coming from customs into the terminal, but I am not going to explain it here. That issue was resolved by ensuring that he had no contact with people getting onto other flights, by walking him out ringed with guards.

Originally posted by mryanbrown
But if the *only* way out to freedom is through a secured area.

Technically the area between the customs checkpoint and the terminal security checkpoint would be considered a free area, and that is what they are saying by telling him he is free to go “back that way”. While we might not consider it freedom in the context that a normal person is used too, legally its still considered freedom as you are not being held in custody.

Originally posted by mryanbrown
I completely understand the layouts can be engineered to completely eliminate your options.

I don’t think that the airport was intentionally engineered to cause this problem. It’s simply that older airports were not designed with this enhanced security in mind making it difficult or sometimes impossible to alter the layout to correct the problem.

For example some airports are laid out in airsides with the baggage pickup area in the central main terminal and the customs area in a special terminal designed to receive customs flights. The only way to correct this problem would involve extensive rebuilding.

reply to post by Everwatcher33


Sorry to be the one to point this out to you, but there is the law, and then there is common sense. Just because something seems to make common sense to the rest of us, does not mean that is the way it’s applied by the law, as silly as that may seem.
So basically…
Laws Common sense
Remember lawyers are those guys who can sit for days arguing over the meaning of the word “is”.