Dave says: "This is an article describing how federal air marshals are placing innocent people on watch lists to meet quotas that require them to file at least one surveillance detection report (or SDR) per month."
"Do these reports have real life impacts on the people who are identified as potential terrorists?" 7NEWS Investigator Tony Kovaleski asked.
"Absolutely," a federal air marshal replied.
7NEWS obtained an internal Homeland Security document defining an SDR as a report designed to identify terrorist surveillance activity.
"When you see a decision like this, for these reports, who loses here?" Kovaleski asked.
"The people we're supposed to protect — the American public," an air marshal said.
What kind of impact would it have for a flying individual to be named in an SDR?
"That could have serious impact … They could be placed on a watch list. They could wind up on databases that identify them as potential terrorists or a threat to an aircraft. It could be very serious," said Don Strange, a former agent in charge of air marshals in Atlanta. He lost his job attempting to change policies inside the agency.
