I have been trying to find, with multiple conflicting answers, the exact protocol, in the new “enhanced” patdown scheme the TSA has employed, for searching women who are wearing skirts or dresses.
I know that agents are permitted to run their fingers inside the waistbands of clothing. I know that they run their hands up legs, to the point where they nudge (or more) travelers’ genitals.
But my very simple question, that I cannot get a straight answer on: if women are wearing skirts or dresses, are agents allowed to put their hands under the skirt, and run their hands up the bare leg, until they’re touching the crotch with only the barrier of underwear or do they have to draw the skirt around the leg so that there is fabric between the agents’ hands and the traveler?
I don’t know if they’re allowed to, but a couple of weeks ago I got pulled aside for special screening when I was wearing a long skirt. The lady had me stand in a kind of scissor stance, if that makes sense, and patted both legs up and down over the skirt. I did not feel particularly violated, and nobody touched my panties, but obviously I won’t wear a skirt traveling again now that I know of this new terroristic threat.
