Secondary Security Screening Selection

Secondary Security Screening Selection or Secondary Security Screening Selectee, known by its acronym SSSS, is an airport security measure in the United States and Canada which selects passengers for additional inspection^{[citation needed]}. This may also be known as Selectee, Automatic Selectee or the Selectee list^{[citation needed]}. The list contains 14,000 names, as of December 2009.

Boarding pass of passenger selected for secondary security screening.

Selection criteria

Neither the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) nor the airlines publish the criteria that are used when boarding passes are issued to identify passengers who will be given extra screening or be denied boarding.

Some criteria are:

• Passengers with a one-way reservation.
• Passengers who pay cash for their tickets.
• Passengers who book reservations the day of their flight.
• Passengers who "no show" a single leg of their flight.
• Random selection, according to TSA spokeswoman Amy Von Walter in 2004, and as suggested by a 2003 DOI newsletter.
• Flight to specific final destinations.
• Flying without ID
• Having one's name on a list of names supplied by the government to the airlines, according to an airline staff questioned.

Since neither the TSA nor the airline run a background check at the time boarding passes are issued, immigration status and criminal records are not taken into consideration during SSSS. Furthermore, personal information such as a passenger's addresses, employment history, and medical records are not taken into account during SSSS and may not even be available at the time.^{[citation needed]}

Procedure when selected

Passengers who have been selected for this secondary screening will have the letters SSSS or *S* (all capitals) printed on their boarding passes.

SSSS passengers will go through a more intensive screening process which may include puffer explosive detectors. Their carry-on luggage may be also be inspected by hand. In the case of film or other items that cannot be X-rayed, the agent may perform a test for possible explosive materials. The screener may also use a hand held metal detector to search the passenger for metal objects.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• No-fly list
• Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System
• Terrorist Screening Database

External links

• ACLU of Washington: What is the "Selectee List"?
• EPIC: Documents Show Errors in TSA's "No Fly" and "Selectee" Watch Lists
• DHS to Launch Traveler Redress Inquiry Program

Accounts of passengers

• Happening Here – Miscellaneous posts about the No Fly and Selectee lists and being removed from them
• selectee | GurBlogs
• Mark Graber (2007-04-08). "Another Enemy of the People?" (blog). Balkinization. http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/04/another-enemy-of-people.html. Retrieved 2007-04-12.  – Walter F. Murphy
• "Airport InRANTation" (blog). KABOBfest. 2007-03-28. http://kabobfest.blogspot.com/2007/03/airport-inrantation.html. Retrieved 2007-04-12. 
• James Moore. Branded
• Babak Fakhamzadeh. From San Francisco to Tokyo
• Jacob Appelbaum Air Space - a trip through an airport detention center