Just Back. Issue 1: Profiling at Park Entrance..

[loves to dive]

Either my son or I were pulled out every time we went through, crowded or not. He is 35 and ex-Navy so holds himself with an obvious military stature and his hair is cut high and tight. If we were together, he got selected, if I was alone I got selected, he never got selected when he was alone. Not sure what that says, didn't bother either of us.

 

[OKW Lover]

From reading all the responses here the policy certainly does sound random.

 

[gwb]

If it was truly random, they wouldn't be wearing ear pieces. Someone is telling them who to scan.

those ear peices are statndard issue radio communication devices not a big brother telling them what to do. You see them on security at football games, music concerts festivals etc.

 

[Jesslm80]

We fondly call my husband "random bag check guy". Everywhere we go he is randomly selected. He is a tall, white guy, with a military cut hair style and IMO dashingly good looking. He is also a USMC helicopter pilot. It's hilarious to us at every screening because he has higher security clearance than most people. He never complains and because he's such a regular random check we always go before him. He eventually catches up. Lol.

 

[bumbershoot]

I am only saying that sharing your anecdote does not get us closer to knowing.

Then the OP's post doesn't do anything, either.

The OP said x. More than one person has said Y. There are more instances of Y being shared. The OP's X is slowly starting to be negated, IMO.

I think it's interesting that many people cite their individual experiences as evidence or proof of non-profiling or the randomness of the screening, but object to the OP extrapolating that his experience would indicate profiling.

Have people objected to anything people are saying here? Or are they just relating their experiences? If the OP's experience counts, then every single other experience here that has been related counts as well. So far, the OP seems to be the only one feeling that there's any profiling happening, unless I've missed something.

 

[AngiTN]

This is not true. No one is telling them who to grab to scan. The checkpoint is ran by people employed by their company, they don't work for Disney. There's not some group of secret people watching in a building telling them who to grab. I actually don't think I've seen any of the ones motioning people for the screen wearing ear pieces.

The ones wearing ear pieces are security guards who use it to communicate.

this was the case at first but they are now staffed by Disney employees

 

[ITALIANNYC]

They can profile me 20 times. Keeps the park safe. I applaud that. Who knows the process or how they choose. I've seen all races get selected. The last thing I wanna worry about it some crazy person at Disney.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

I would be surprised if they are not profiling- but not for race. Trained law enforcement officers profile based on a lot of things- particularly subtle behaviors. It would be a security lapse not to. Purely random security checks would not be very effective. They know what they are looking for. Let them look for it. It for the safety of everyone.

 

[MsThumper]

We just returned from Disney. I got "selected" when we entered MK. I am a 60yr old white female. Every time we went into Epcot, through the International gateway, if you didn't have a bag, you went through the scanner, and we entered at least 6 times. I had a bag twice, so I only went through the scanner 4 times. DH never has a bag, so he went thru the scanner every time. It doesn't bother me at all.

 

[SnipsNSnails]

I would hope that they are aware of certain "risk factors" and do take those into account when selecting people. When they haven't identified anyone with those "risk factors" then they just grab people to pull through. We were there for 9 days. We went through security a lot. We were traveling in a group with 7-9 people and people in our group were pulled out a few times but not a lot, I think 4-5 time total. I was pulled aside twice. Both times, in the non-bag line. I'm a white suburban mom with nothing in my pockets and usually one of the kids in tow. It appeared to me, that they were screening someone and then walking back over and grabbing the next person who walked through. I tested this observation one day at Epcot as I had already been pulled out twice and didn't want to do it again. As I started toward the non-bag entrance I noticed that the checker was headed back to grab someone else and it would be me next, I stopped and said something to my son who was with me and waited until two other people approached the line ahead of me and the first one through was randomly selected and we followed on through and continued on. I felt that it was indeed random to the point that whoever was next was screened. Not sure if several people are approaching if they might decide to select someone other than the next person through based on profiling. But I felt from my experience, where the no bag line was concerned, it was completely avoidable with careful observation.

 

[Disneyland_emily]

My husband gets pulled every single time we go to the parks (6 of 6) to the point it's comical..

 

[HopperFan]

Nope, don't agree.

January I think I don't remember exact number of park days, something like 7. I was picked I think 5 times at 3 parks (highly disappointed to not collect a 4 park metal scanner card). I don't see that I would tick many suspicious boxes, always had bags, always had them searched, always had convos with security and STILL had to go through the glow machine. I saw plenty of folks I would have scanned over me but they didn't ........ and as far as me, I don't care. It took a minute at most.

AND every one of them scanning me was a DISNEY Security guy. I didn't see the contractor security working like we had on previous trips.

 

[MHSweb79]

Another pasty-white middle aged lady here. I seem to get picked almost every time and my husband not once. I don't know if they are profiling or not but I just go along with it - takes just a couple of minutes.

 

[robinb]

I do not think it's random. I have a friend who looks young, has darker olive skin and long curly hair. In short, he looks like he's middle eastern. He's an annual passholder and he gets "randomly selected" every single time he goes through security.

 

[Nancyg56]

I challenge your premise. From looking at my experience alone I was pulled out to participate in 3 out of 5 park visits. That's a 60% ratio in days that a person of non-color got selected.

WHen DIsney has their ear long celebrations and they select people as winners for whatever giveaway they are offering, their is a compute that spits out the criteria. WHiel I do nto knwo that the entrance screening is the same, I imagine it is pretty close. The computer tells them what "number" guest at such and such turnstile at such and such a time. The earpieces may or not play a part in this.

 

[ps17]

Hi all. OP here with some clarifications.

1) Racially profiling was probably not the right term. We think it is more that they may have as a policy been instructed identifying persons that are risk factors and checking that. It is our opinion that in profiling, those individuals selected for that reason tend to be more "aggressive looking", tougher, whatever - that is fine, but we think that race, descent, middle eastern looking does play a part.

2) Clarify that this is an opinion - and will have to respectfully agree to disagree. Also stated that as general procedure, they will go ahead and pick true random people including those that appear least likely or capable of causing issues. This does not preclude them from identifying "riskier" people for screening

3) I understand that most responders disagree and think that there is no profile or security screening going on, but consider this: You are non-Caucasian and in a group of "standard" family. The screener looks at the entire group and cuts in and pulls you out for screening - if this happened to you repeatedly, you might feel otherwise.

4) Those checkpoints for no-bag entrance are not heavily staffed since they are choke points. There appear to be just one or two "selectors" - they don't screen every person. The times that I was not selected was because the selector was in the process of identifying and selecting someone else. So in those cases, I was trumped or foddered from others ahead that they may have already selected for any reason.

5) I have no problem with being screened or selected because I understand that security is paramount. Still of OPINION that they should just screen everyone or make it truly random (next time, pick my wife or one of our kids).....

 

[Rachel77]

I'm lily white - or else tomato red depending on my outside time LOL - and reach 5 ft on a good day. I was randomly selected every time but one this trip. Of course I am always the one who gets randomly selected at airports too so maybe I do have this scary look about me

 

[AngiTN]

Hi all. OP here with some clarifications.

3) I understand that most responders disagree and think that there is no profile or security screening going on, but consider this: You are non-Caucasian and in a group of "standard" family. The screener looks at the entire group and cuts in and pulls you out for screening - if this happened to you repeatedly, you might feel otherwise.

This describes what has happened DH at least once per day on every one of our trips (we enter parks numerous times per day) and he does not feel as you do

But yes, he has been pulled out from our group way more often than the rest of us have

He does not believe he has been profiled

So it just shows that is happens in Caucasian families also

 

[gwb]

I do not think it's random. I have a friend who looks young, has darker olive skin and long curly hair. In short, he looks like he's middle eastern. He's an annual passholder and he gets "randomly selected" every single time he goes through security.

And what about the other pp who are white and get picked every time?

 

[andreajanowiak]

My dad got "randomly selected" twice when we were on vacation this February on our six day stay. He said he wasn't bothered by it whatsoever. On a scale of 1-100 of being annoyed by Disney's actions, he said it was a 1, compared to when our Magic Bands wouldn't work on our first day, which was a 99.9 to him. Here's a picture of us, does he look "suspicious" or "risky"?? The only profile he fits in is the one of "middle aged white dad who can't dance."