What is unclear is the extent to which companies such as Walmart will be asked to assist in detaining persons of interest. The Gazette asked Walmart corporate HQ if DHS was expecting them to detain individuals, if requested by law-enforcement, until officers could arrive at the scene. They were also asked if they had received assurances they would not be held liable if they detained someone based simply on a report by another customer.
Multiple requests for information were not returned.
There has already been one such case in which a private company was sued for acting on individuals with concerns. In November, 2006, US Airways removed six Muslim imams from a flight in Minneapolis. Passengers reported the men after they became concerned about their behavior. Three of the men had prayed aloud in front of passengers as they waited for the flight to depart. Upon boarding, a passenger passed a note to the pilot expressing concerns.
The men reportedly were spaced out throughout the cabin, speaking in Arabic and cursing US involvement in Iraq.
Based on the concerns, the Metropolitan Airports Commission and a Federal Air Marshall boarded the aircraft and detained the imams. Following questioning, they were permitted to board a later flight. The men subsequently sued the government and US Airways as well as the individual passengers who had reported their behavior. As a result of this incident, congress passed a law protecting individuals who report suspicious behavior, but no such protection was offered to business.
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