What happened to a Washington, D.C., resident at a Florida TSA checkpoint over the weekend has some saying it “makes you wonder what’s going on with their training and their policies.”
“They simply have not been either applying or maintaining standards for good personnel,” Douglas Kidd with the National Association of Airline Passengers told WFTV-TV.
On Saturday WSB-TV Washington Correspondent Justin Gray initially was denied clearance through the Transportation Security Administration’s checkpoint at Orlando International Airport because he had a driver’s license from the District of Columbia.
Eventually, Gray made it through security, according to WFTV, and complained of the incident to a supervisor on staff. Shortly after his own tweets about the mistake, TSA responded to Gray.
A TSA spokesman told Gray that its agents are trained in identifying fraudulent documents and have been shown copies of licenses from D.C.
D.C.-based reporter Justin Gray initially had his driver's license rejected by a TSA agent who didn't recognize it as a valid form of U.S. identification. (Image source: WFTV-TV)
D.C.-based reporter Justin Gray initially had his driver’s license rejected by a TSA agent who didn’t recognize it as a valid form of U.S. identification. (Image source: WFTV-TV)
Watch WFTV’s report about the incident:
Gray said the TSA acknowledged one other similar incident at the Orlando airport in the past, but agents in other cities have made the mistake as well.
A woman who was visiting the Grand Canyon in Arizona was asked for her passport when TSA didn’t recognize her D.C. driver’s license when she tried to return home.
“She didn’t seem to know that it was basically the same as a state ID,” Ashley Brandt told the Washington Post of the incident, which happened in February. “D.C. is obviously not a state, but I didn’t ever imagine it would be a problem — I mean, the whole population of D.C. has to use these.”