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It's actually not. The TSA only has rules pertaining to the photographing of the secured checkpoint. Anything else is fair game, unless the airport/airline itself has a rule prohibiting it. Said rule could be a state rule, county, even town. Whoever runs the airport makes the call.Quote:
Originally Posted by jhickman
I meant about being harassed.
The TSA is NOT law enforcement, which most people don't understand. They have no powers to arrest you. Any violations that they see, they must contact the police agency that has jurisdiction in order to press charges. So the most that the TSA would have been able to do in this situation is deny you boarding (not sure what grounds they would have for that, taking photos of the terminal is not an imminent risk to the flight you were getting on) and contact the police. I think that this is more of a case of people a) misunderstanding the role of the TSA, or b) using their presence as a scare tactic.Quote:
Originally Posted by yankees368
Ok, here's an update.
I called PBI today and asked for some clarification on the topic. The manager I spoke to was very surprised about this, and reinforced our belief that there are no rules against photo taking within the terminal and that it is a public space. He has not heard of the issue, but also laughed when I explained it to him. He reassured me that I was in the clear, and that they will be sending out a memo to clarify the non-rule. He apologized, but could go no further since I did not have a name.
Nice to know I was not acting in any way I should not have been.
Dang, we missed an opportunity to get someone's ass handed to them about this. Oh well I'm sure there's always next time...
well I am glad this got cleared up for you- and I hope you got the name of the person you spoke with in case this happens again.
Nice work on the follow up. Would have been karmic justice for spotters everywhere if you had a name so the person involved could get some "retraining", but I guess we can all just say thanks for making sure they all are brought up to speed on the rules, or in this case the lack of a rule restricting our hobby. Good job. I'm tempted to take a trip down there to grab some terminal photos and make a Flickr album honoring you for pushing back respectfully and being right.Quote:
Originally Posted by yankees368
Haha, that'd be awesome. And the next time I am at PBI, I will be sure to take out the DSLR and take as many pictures as I want to.Quote:
Originally Posted by TJK