At HSV, if someone has a prohibited item and wants to take it back to their checked luggage or to their car (aka the public area of the airport) then we allow them to pack up the rest of their belongings and escort them out of the security screening area (down the exit lane) and when we reach the TDC podium, hand the item back to the passenger and let them know that we'll be here when they get back. If we get a line in the meanwhile, and see them waiting in the line, usually we even try to go get them out of the line and move them forward in screening to ensure a minimal amount of hassle for the passenger. If they want to give the item to another person outside the checkpoint that's seeing them off, we take it out there ourselves and give it to them.

For a TSO to not even give the options, and just summarily take something is... just... wrong.

I've heard about this... practice before. Mostly over on the EoS Blog. It makes me cringe anytime I hear about it. It's one of the major reasons that the "Got Feedback?" thing was instituted, because it effectively now goes over the checkpoint supervisor's head, and the CYA stops.

As for the badge... she flipped her SIDA badge over, but that's not what you need. What you need is the nameplate pinned to the right breast pocket. Pre-blue uniform, it had firstname.uniformnumber on it, now it's lastname-over-rank. That's all TSA needs to identify... whomever. The information on the SIDA badge itself is irrelevant, and the plate can't quite be turned over to hide the information.

We at HSV have been instructed here by supervisors and management alike that if a passenger ever requests or demands to know our name, we are to give that information (i.e.; the stuff on the nameplate) freely without any attempts at evasion. Strictly speaking, we don't even have to have interacted with the passenger at all. If they ask for it, we give them the information on our nameplate.