New Citizen Watchdog Group Takes on the TSA

TSA Watch is a new Citizen Watchdog Group that aims to force the TSA to clean up their act.

Similar to a neighborhood watch, this national non-profit organization seeks to empower citizens to take action and ensure their own security through safety in numbers. As stated by the creators of TSA Watch:

Too many of our family, friends, and fellow travelers have been violated by agents of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). While some may argue the need for federal security at airports, one thing is clear — it is not the American way to sacrifice fundamental liberty for temporary security. Whenever there are those who use security as an excuse to violate our property, our privacy, or our dignity, there need to be champions brave enough to stand up and draw a line.

There has been an uptick in citizens using technology as a boomerang against the same tools of oppressive surveillance that the various agencies of the U.S. government have exploited. Please see the video below and learn more about how you can support this national campaign for liberty that will combine the use of phone apps, web-based tools and a legal framework to restore the right to privacy and dignity while traveling.

From TSA Watch – The Mission:

With a broad-based membership, both seen and unseen, our very presence can act to deter abuses by agents of the TSA. And where that is not enough, we will document violations and bring the worst offenders to the attention of the TSA and the public.

TSA Watch will work to educate and organize members to document and even video record the TSA in action. We will help them to prepare and submit complaints about inappropriate TSA agent behavior, and to demand compliance with the Fourth Amendment. And, where possible, we will help them to prosecute for theft and molestations, and for other violations of travelers’ rights, dignity, and property.

As an organization, we will use web and phone app tools to collect complaint reports, map hot spots (sources of repeated complaints), and hold the TSA and their agents accountable for their actions. We will utilize professional tool-sets to document TSA misbehavior including sworn witness testimony, audio and visual recording, and new technologies for tracking items missing from passenger luggage.

Our members will receive articles and videos on how to deal with the TSA, TSA Watch tags and locks for their luggage, and members’ services, including member discussion areas, help filing complaints, and more. A phone app will be developed to help members through the TSA security zones, document the process, and make filing complaints easy—and more effective. We will also provide and/or sell products useful for holding the TSA accountable and for promoting TSA Watch, including chips to track items, in-luggage cable locks to prevent theft during searches, and protocols for properly documenting claims. Other services may include a variety of seminars, litigation classes, legal insurance, legal counsel and other assistance.

To this end, we are seeking $35,000 to create a stalwart legal and multimedia infrastructure while we prepare for our true public launch, a national multimedia membership and funding campaign. So far we have one angel committed for 10% of the total and several interested parties. We are poised to begin, and seek immediate funding. We sure could use your help—even if you think it’s not much.

The funding request is humble for what we are doing, and just covers the bare bones preparation work for an organization that can handle a national campaign.

Your contributions in this early phase will be put to immediate use, as we work to create the legal and multimedia infrastructure for a successful and massive membership campaign, to meet or exceed our $1 million and 20,000 member initial target goals, creating a national nonprofit well positioned to defend our rights.

The Team

Our founding Director is Evan Cutler, who organized and led Alaskans for Ron Paul in 2008 and 2012. Evan also directed, fundraised and established the legal structure for the National DVDs for Delegates Project in 2008. Christopher Flynn, Assistant Director, brings over 30 years of exceptional creative vision, radio and television multimedia production, and business experience to this project. Alicia Dearn is our startup legal counsel for TSA Watch. She is a partner at Bellatrix PC, and served as primary counsel for the 2012 Libertarian Party, Gary Johnson for President Campaign.

How You Can Help

Also, we are actively growing our non-profit’s Board Of Directors and Advisors while we raise funds. If you are interested in becoming a part of our board, please contact us to let us know why you feel you might be a good match.

Likewise, if you have other ways to help that don’t fit into the GoFundMe system, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We have just set up a very basic website at www.TSAWatch.org, and will be updating it as we can. You can also write to us with questions, suggestions, or concerns with an email via GoFundMe.

With your assistance, we can protect Americans’ rights and prevent the TSA from violating our liberties. There is no time like the present. Please feel free to donate whatever you wish, here on GoFundMe, right now.

How can we thank you for your support? Anyone who donates $5 or more will get free membership for two years, and the phone app for free once it’s developed. Donations of $50 or more will receive the phone app and lifetime Charter Memberships to TSA Watch, for as long as we need to exist. Donations of $500 or more will earn you a spot on our Honorary Charter Advisory Board, if you want one.

Another way to help us gain momentum is for you to invite your friends to check out our project, and share a link to this page in the online gathering spots you feel it would interest people.

Together, we can and will make an important difference.

Thank you in advance for your help in making this project a reality!

Most Sincerely,
Evan Cutler, Founding Director, TSA Watch
Christopher Flynn, Assistant Director, TSA Watch

http://www.gofundme.com/TSAWatch