New TSA policy? Empty your pockets when you’re being screened

If you’re confused by the TSA’s many new security protocols — from enhanced pat-downs to printer cartridge bans — then you probably don’t want to know about Eugene Solomon.

When Solomon was screened in Bozeman, Mont., a few days ago, a TSA officer instructed him to remove everything from his pockets before he walked through a magnetometer.

The TSA officer told me they had a new protocol and I was to empty all of my pockets. This was not secondary screening. I asked if this included my wallet and cash in my pocket. The response was “we would like you to.”


If TSA is going to begin asking us to empty all of our pockets before we pass through the metal detector, that could be problematic.

I am surely not alone concerned about surrendering my wallet and cash to the tray through the x-ray machine. I certainly don’t like being separated from my identification in a place that demands this item multiple times during screening. Care for my credit cards and cash is also an issue.

Last time I checked, emptying your pockets of loose change and other items that might set off the magnetometer was optional.

When you’re subjected to a full-body scan, you also empty your pockets, but you get to hold them above your head, which is fine. I think Solomon’s worry (mine, too) is that your wallet and ID have to go through the conveyor belt and may or may not come out the other side.

A valid concern, given some of the recent incidents involving theft of personal property by TSA agents.

I asked TSA if the “empty pockets” policy was limited to Bozeman, to the region, or if it was being rolled out nationwide. A representative responded to my inquiry, but could not answer the question.

So I guess we’ll have to wait to find out if everything has to come out of our pockets now. This should be interesting.

  • Bill Smith

    I flew back from Atlanta to BWI back in mid-September and had to send my boarding pass through the scanner even though I was subjected to a full body scan. Isn’t the purpose of the full body scans so that we don’t have to do things such as this? Is it really necessary to send an item that we’re supposed to have under our control at all times through the scanner? FWIW, my boarding pass came out and fell through the rollers and onto the floor. I ended up having to navigate around a few people to get to it

  • James

    This isn’t just a Bozeman thing. I was required to empty all items from my pockets and remove a belt that had no metal on it at DCA and MSY this week. At MSY, if you “opted” to not comply, you were forced to a full body scan and additional pat down. As I was waiting for a colleague, I watched bins stack up and more than one person walk away with the incorrect shoes, belts and one family had their boarding passes fall through the rollers as their bin was flipped over by larger bags being ushered through by TSA.

  • Chicky

    The one solution I see to this is to carry a passport folder. I have one and it’s a godsend. I put all my ID, bills, change, boarding pass, etc., in it and it goes through in the bin with my purse and shoes. It has a zippered pocket so I can put change in it safely. That way, I don’t have anything in my pockets to start with, so it takes less time. Mine was a little prize for signing up with a website, but they’re available everywhere. And, if your money and credit cards are all zipped up in a little pocket, there’s a much smaller likelihood of it going astray. I wouldn’t fly without mine.

  • Monica

    I don’t expect to fly again until Febrary (DC to Orlando), but hearing about all the craziness that has been happening lately makes me nervous. I fear I’ll have to spend a week reading TSA’s Do’s and Don’t's before packing. But no matter what I do, I’ll probably still be wrong when I get to the airport. LOL.

    I won’t part with my ID though. My wallet usually goes through the X-ray in my carry-on bag, so that doesn’t bother me, but my license is always on my person when flying. I hope that doesn’t become SOP… not that there is a consistent SOP with the TSA!

  • Alice

    This is crazy. We had an incident last year at LAX. We went through security, and one of the TSA agents asked to do a manual check of my daughter’s purse. He turned around, rifled through it, then returned the purse. I was not able to see what he was doing. When we got on the plane, my daughter noticed that her IPod was missing. I can’t be absolutely sure that the agent stole it, but my daughter insists that the IPod was in her purse when we got to the airport. I did file a complaint with TSA, but nothing ever came of it. I am now very nervous to be parted for long from my valuables when going through the screening process.

  • Brian\PVD

    My wallet, watch, cell phone, spare change, car keys, belt etc all go in the carry on in a zippered compartment that goes through the x ray. Driver’s license or passport, and boarding pass stay in my hand.

    I mostly do it do I don’t have to spend time packing up a dozen small objects and putting them back in pockets. To me it’s just easier to pack everything up as I’m waiting in the 10-20 minute long line rather than argue with whatever regulations the TSA decides to enforce that day.

  • noah

    Maybe this is in part of the letter that Chris didn’t include, but nothing here suggests that Solomon was required to part with his wallet. “Empty your pockets” does not mean “empty your pockets and drop your stuff in the basket to go through the metal detector.” If they just tell me to empty my pockets that’s fine, because I’m capable of carrying my wallet through the metal detector.

  • Brian C

    I’m with Brian/PVD, while in the security line I start slowly transferring everything from my pockets into the zippered pocket of my carry on before I get to the metal detectors.

    I’m also very carefull and my stuff never goes through the xray machine before I do. I’ve had TSA agents try to push my stuff through I tell them “It doesn’t go through before I do”. They usually don’t say anything. First thing on the belt is my shoes and jacket then Laptop and bag. This way if my stuff makes it out before I do it’s just my shoes and jacket and the laptop is usually still inside the plastic tunnel thing on the other side of the x-ray machine.

    It’s always been there when I get to the other side and I’ve seen too many people just leave there stuff on the belt and not push it into the machine before going through the metal detector.

  • GeekChic

    I’ve always been requested to empty my pockets and put metallic items in the tray for screening – the screeners specifically ask about change, keys and gum (the foil causes the sensor to react). They have told me to leave my watch and jewelry on and carry my boarding pass. My wallet holds change so I let it go through the scanner too. I don’t find it any big deal. I usually fly out of Canadian airports.

  • Abhi

    Chris, it’s not just the TSA agents one has to worry about, but the fellow passangers passing through the screening. My wife had this horrible experience in Atlanta,GA last year when she put her backpack through the screening conveyer and walked past the metal detector only to find that another woman was picking up the backpack and running away. MY wife immediately brought this to the TSA agent and he ran after the other woman to successfully bring her back with the backpack but he had to run almost to the end of an escalator to catch up with her. In addition to that, my wife had to pass the ‘guess what’s in the bag’ test and show her name tag and secondary ID proofs in the bag to prove that it really was her backpack. It took her a few moments to regain her composure and call me to tell what happened before she embarked on an international journey. Now imagine if the TSA officer had not been able to catch the woman or if my wife had her valuables and purse stolen, it would have been an impossible situation. Thankfully the TSA officer took the woman into custody after the incident but my wife didn’t have enough time to wait and file reports as flight time was getting closer with the next flight being 24 hours later.

    Theft may not be the only motive here if you imagine someone might be putting an illegal drug in your backpack while running away with it and then once you prove the luggage to be yours, you are done for good. I would be very skeptical of someone else picking up my wallet, passport or another valuable and making away with it while I am being patted down or waiting in line to be scanned. TSA will definitely not entertain any claims about the lost items.

  • Abhi

    Please read my post above for all those who like to put their belongings in the zippered pocket of your carry ons. Might want to reconsider. You might be able to save some of it if it’s not all in one place. Remember the adage about all eggs in one basket?

  • Michael

    When flying out of Las Vegas on 9/1, we were told we were allowed to have nothing in our pockets. Same when flying out of Providence on 9/25. However, nothing was said in Norfolk on my flight out to either of those places.

  • DJP

    I have argued with TSA agents numerous times when they have told me to empty my pockets completely —my response—-that means they are now legally responsible for all my belongings and should anyhting be missing it will be their legal responsibility for said items.

    They say for you to watch them but its kind of hard when I am 20 feet away and their are a bunch of people around.

  • Alec

    I’ve had to do full empty pockets at least three times flying out of BOS over the last few months.

  • Jake

    TSA SUCKS!!! There is nothing they do right except make new rules and. Make travelers more inconvenienced

  • Eric

    There is no SOP, as evidenced by the TSA person unable to answer Chris’ question. TSA operates by whatever they wake up feeling like doing on any given day.

  • Sean

    I’ve had several airports, where even my boarding pass in my front shirt pocket, was asked to remove it from my pocket after going through the magnetometer and had my chest patted down.

  • MeanMeosh

    I haven’t seen the “nothing in pockets” rule at any of the airports I fly through. That being said, I stuff my wallet, keys, and cell phone in my carry-on before going to the checkpoint, anyway, and just keep my drivers license and boarding pass with me. It’s a lot easier to go through the checkpoint that way if you ask me. The best way to reduce the risk of theft if you do this – put the carry-on containing your valuables on the belt last, and wait until it actually starts going in to the x-ray machine before walking through. It’s unlikely as it is that your bags will beat you through the metal detector, and this way, they aren’t out of your sight, either, except when they’re being scanned.

  • Jasper

    The TSA is broken. It is supposed to exist for our safety, but subjects us to its whims. It is fairly easy to prepare for the silly rules of the TSA, but the major point should be that the more rules and hassle TSA introduces, the more terrorists are winning.

    Remember: Successful terrorism is not an occasional hijacked plane or explosion. Successful terrorism is a change in behavior due to fear of such events. Every single time someone has to take their shoes off Richard Reid, the shoe bomber snickers in his cell. He may be in jail, but he managed to inconvenience millions of people. He won.

  • kathis

    Women have to do this all the time by putting our purses on the conveyer belt, with all of our ID’s, credit cards, cash and other valuables. I wasn’t even aware that men were previously allowed to keep their wallets in their pockets.

  • jeff

    i throw anything in my pocket in a zippered pocket of my carry on before i even get in the screening line… i have a fake hip so I get the pat down anyway but this way it still speeds things up

  • Dolores Erlebacher

    For a number of years, before leaving the house, my husband puts everything in his pocket into a ziplock bag and then places the ziplock bag in the basket inside his shoes. I don’t think it’s a foolproof measure, but it would take a bit more effort to get to his wallet.

  • http://www.roadtripdream.com Carol White

    I had a weird one last week in Albuquerque – as I approached the machine after a wait – I realized my necklace could set it off, so I was taking it off to add it to the bin and the TSA woman literally yelled at me – twice – to leave it on. WHOA! She directed me around the machine you step through and on to a pad, so I assume I was zapped with a body scanner (?), but such hostility… and I thought the body scanners you stepped into also. Why did she direct me around the machine – it appeared to me that I hadn’t been scanned at all…

  • Duke Nukem

    Accept defeat, “the war on terror” is over, and we all know who won…

  • Jesse

    Most of the information should be readily available to us, shouldn’t it (FOIA)?

    Unless the information has been deemed secret then that is something else, but if that was called secret then the TSA agents should be screened as well for security clearances and I am very sure they are not.

  • http://sovereignthink.wordpress.com sovereignthink

    Government Mandated; Pornography or Molestation – FullBody Scan or Enhanced Interrogation Pat-Down

    Our Nation Once to Build Radiation Shelters and now we have Full Body Identification Radiation Chambers with Little Alternative to Travel

    Meg Mclain- ‘I’ve never had so man grown men with guns shouting at me for no reason.’

    (more)
    http://sovereignthink.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/fullbody-scan-or-enhanced-pat-down/

    -sovereignthink

  • Julie

    I’ve had to do this in Oakland a few times in the last three months– EVERYTHING had to be emptied from my pockets, including small scraps of paper. Each time, I’ve been subjected to the body scanner (only me, the few times I’ve traveled with others). Don’t know if I can carry any of it with me through the scanner. I doubt they’d allow it.

  • Texas Road Warrior

    We flew to Boston out of DFW end of October and went through the “usual” TSA screening process. When we were returning to fly back to DFW a week later, TSA at Boston made us remove everything from our pockets, including wallet and my wife had to remove her wrist watch to go through the screening.

    The following week I flew out of DFW again and the TSA screening process was no different than the previous experience at DFW.

    The most aggravating thing about TSA is there seems to be no standard operating procedure practiced throughout the system. TSA claims they have a nationwide SOP but it seems each airport location is operating by their own set of procedures and some airports like McCarran (Las Vegas) have different procedures based on day of week. There is a big difference in the screening process during the week versus the weekend.

    I guess terrorists don’t fly on weekends.

  • DN

    The only time I am asked to remove everything from my pockets is when I go through a full-body scanner; otherwise, I’m not asked to do so. Mind you, I did about 50+ flights in the past 2 months to 20 different cities so I have some recent experience with this. I avoid full body scanner lines like the plague because 1) they’re *much* slower and 2) if you’re facing the way you’re supposed to on a full-body scanner, your back is to the conveyor belt and you can’t keep track of your stuff.

    Now, in 4+ years of constant flying, I do throw my BlackBerry and wallet in a bin and run it through the machine without incident. I’ve lost more items in the rental car return than I have with TSA, but maybe I’ve just been lucky.

  • Glenn

    Wow! Lots of paranoia and hostility here. From the begining of the TSA thing, before I enter the security line I step aside and put everything that might set off the detector in a zip lock bag and put it in my carry-on or computer case. I then maintain a calm demeanor and go through the check point. No problems no matter what the level of security or country I’m in. This is after 21 years in the military and 15 years traveling as a consultant. Then again, I’m a 60 year-old white man with gray hair cut in a flat top. Maybe I don’t fit the profile.

  • http://oussamastake.blogspot.com/ Oussama

    What are we talking about people, let us put this in perspective. we had to empty our pockets from the day they invented the magnetic arch way a few decades back. If you are scared for your belongings put them in your bag or briefcase, I usually put them in the tray through the X-Ray machine and in 33 years of travelling I have not lost anything going through security.
    The TSA may not be the most efficient organization in the world but they do a job that needs to be done whether we agree or not and considering the number of people who travel they do a fairly good job.
    And if you think you can pull a stunt like Meg Mclain’s in Ben Gurion airport think again, she would have been in a jail cell.

  • Kevin M

    I can see I have another chore to do: contact my attorney and have him draft something legally binding along the lines of this:

    “I (fill in the blank), as an employee and representative of the Transportation Safety Administration, acknowledge the receipt of the wallet of (my name), among its contents being the following items: Driver’s license issued by the state of Louisiana; cash in the amount of $(fill in the blank), credit cards as follows (list bank issuing and last four digits of each card); acknowledge the obligation to return the complete contents as itemized to me in person immediately upon completion of security screening; and accept full and complete responsibility for loss of any or all of same, including but not limited to, the costs, if any, of replacing any identification including any exepdited processing fees, any fees levied by the credit card companies referenced above to replace lost/stolen cards, any fraudulent charges to any of said lost/stolen credit cards; the cost of replacement transportation, should the loss of identification make it impossible to travel per schedule; and any other demonstrable loss related to my mishandling of any or all of the above-listed items.”

    If the employee demanding that I hand over my wallet refuses to sign, then I would ask for a supervisor on the spot. If the TSA thinks I’m turning over cash, credit cards or ID for them to run through an x-ray machine, while they take me off to the side for some perv-induced full-body scan where I can’t see my belongings…. well, there’s going to be trouble.

  • Shari

    @ Carol White – The machine you went through was most likely a chemical sniffer, aka a puffer. As far as I know, ABQ doesn’t have any backscatter machines, though they’ve had chemical puffers for years due to their proximity to Sandia National Laboratories. I have no idea why the TSA agent was so rude, save that I’ve found the agents in ABQ to be amongst the rudest in the country. Go figure.

    As for the issue of taking stuff out of pockets, I always pull out my ID and keep it with my boarding pass, both of which I hold as I walk through the metal detector. The rest of my change and stuff gets stuffed in my shoes and in my jacket pockets.

  • Stephen – NYC

    I live in New York City. Recently, I had attended an event at the Small Business Admin office at 26 Federal Plaza. That’s a place you don’t want to arrive at 5 minutes before your 9am meeting. Show your id outside (because the line snakes outside). When you get to the metal detector area, you might have to remove your shoes, but they said to empty everything out of your pockets and remove your belt (even though the metal detector didn’t beep). Take off your watch. The employees don’t have to go through the same procedure. Show their badges (yeah, it would be good to have stinkin’ badges at that time) and away they go.
    But there’s no x-ray or back scatter machine there, so I guess you could carry some nasty stuff into the building if you hid it correctly.

  • Meredith

    I’m sorry Chris, But emptying pockets has been going on for years and is a standard practice in Warwick as well in local courthouses in Mass.

    This is not news to me, and does not hamper the lines in Warwick overly much.

  • bob

    I do not mind the extra security. But now I am really nervous about my carry ons. Specially now that we have to go thru the scanner and or pat down…that is to much time away from my carry on. What if another passenger grabs it or TSA grabs something out of them??? What do we do about this? How can we watch our stuff while going thru the extra security.