Celtic, be prepared to interact with Amtrak PD in the providence station. This morning there were two female officers walking through the station and swiping bags for explosives. There was also a male officer with a dog. No TSA though.
I also saw these same two officers swabbing bags on my last trip south about a month ago.
Do you know if they're there every day or only on certain days? How frequently do their ETD machines return false positives and what happens when/if they do?
Also, I had read in another thread here (I think it was a recent continuation of a TSA@CUS thread from last year) that searches are supposed to be voluntary. Has anyone had success saying "Thanks, but no thanks" when asked?
I'm not necessarily averse to an APD officer (not a TSA clerk) swabbing the outside of (not searching through) my bags (not my person - TSA swabs travelers' hands), but the far end of my journey isn't the place where I'd want anything to go wrong.
Ideally I'd like to sit on a bench, reading a book and waiting for my train, and if they want to bring a dog by I can just ignore it/them and keep reading, and if they want to just touch the outside of my bags I can basically do the same thing. Is this ideal realistic?
Thanks.