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| November 18, 2010 | California district attorney warns against inappropriate pat-downs | | Washington: A California district attorney has vowed to prosecute airport security screeners who touch travellers inappropriately, following the public outcry over the government's new pat-down policy. Steve Wagstaffe, the incoming district attorney in San Mateo County, said that he would charge screeners with sexual battery for complaints of inappropriate touching with sexual or lewd intent. But if the complaint is simply that a TSA screener went too far with a pat down, then it would not be considered a crime. "It becomes a crime when someone does that touching, reaches under the blouse and fondles breasts," Fox News quoted him as saying. "That's a crime under California law," he stated. If convicted of a misdemeanour, TSA
screeners would face up to one year in the county jail; for a felony, which would
involve skin-on-skin contact, they would face up to three years in state prison.
Wagstaffe said he has not received a complaint yet and he believes all the attention
on airport screening will cause TSA to be more careful. The head of the Transportation
Security Administration, John Pistole, acknowledged that the new pat-downs are
more invasive than what travellers were used to in the past. The "enhanced" pat-downs
of airline passengers who opt out of using the high-tech body scanners require
screeners to touch travellers' breasts or genitals.
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