Having just passed through the magnometer/metal detector at the Richmond International Airport, the TSA rep asked me to push the ‘red button’ next to a computer just on the other side. It said something about ‘standard screening’. Having been through many a screening, even at the same airport, this was new to me. Any idea what it’s about? Or what it supposedly will accomplish? I forgot to ask in my hurry to get my shoes back on and lap top out of the conveyer line.
Not TSA, but the Mexican authorities had something more low tech but simlar at the airport in Cozumel. It was a randomizer for random screenings: green light, go on through, red light, get your bags gone through. I suspect your button may have been something similar.
Aha! That makes more sense than many TSA policies. Though I did get a slight flashback to an episode of the Twilight Zone (I think) with the button in the bubble. 
My first thought was of the History Eraser Button … the big, red SHINY button …
TSA, Random, and Button don’t make good Google search terms – anyone else?
I was thinking it activates the fluoroscope.
Why would anyone push the red button? While the guard isn’t looking, go ahead and push the green button and get throught the hassle a little faster.
Same thing at the airport in Cancun.
I’m thinking the button in the bubble was The Outer Limits , but with the TSA it could go either way.
Green button? I was hoping for a blue button that would function similarly to the blue pill from the Matrix…
Sounds like you’re triggering a (wild-assed guess here) one-in-25 “dice roll” - they want to randomly screen one out of 25 passengers, so they let the pax play a part in the game by rolling the dice.
Come to think of it, playing Liars Dice at the checkpoint to determine your speed of getting thorugh would make things more interesting.
My first guess though was it’s a sheeple detector - who will blindly follow arbitary instructions like sheep and who will challenge them and ask why?
TSA is the last organization to want anyone to break from the herd or have their authority challenged. I doubt they’d set up a social experiment at a security checkpoint.
Ditto the foot crossing in Nogales.
It’s probably to eliminate any questions about profiling, racial or otherwise. If you can’t inspect everyone, at least you’re not being accused of stopping only nubile females for a body search.
“Excuse me, miss. Please press the red button twenty five times.”
No no no.
“Miss, please pull the handle. Again. Again. Oh my.”
Hee. I was only half kidding. There was more than one TSA employee at Sky Harbor who was accused of searching young women passengers closer than they were liked. Needless to say, they were all male.