Originally Posted by
TSORon
I agree, you don’t need a happy face or a customer service line, but isn’t that better than the opposite? Isn’t it nice to have a pleasant experience at the checkpoint?
It'd be nice to have a nice experience. Some airports are better than others. It's really hard to have a "nice" experience with the shoe carnival, etc.
Attitude and inefficiency. Having traveled in the recent past I would have to agree with you in part. My fellow TSO’s at other airports are a bit sour. So much so that I don’t even identify myself as a member of the club, simply because I just don’t get their attitude. I ENJOY my time on the checkpoint. The people are good to work with, the job is a challenge, and if I can make a passengers day start out better than he could have done by on his own then it also makes my day.
Now you start to see what we're saying. A lot of screeners that post on here don't travel much. They tend to get the "tunnel vision" where how it's done at their airport is how it's done elsewhere. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Some places are certainly better than others, and have reps on here accordingly. TSA as a whole (procedures) are complained about at some airports. At others, it's that AND the screeners.
No. Its called “Trust”. I trust the upper echelons of the TSA to provide me with the information I need to do my job the very best I can. Do I need to know the chapter and verse of the laws that support my job? No, not at all. The information is available if I choose to go find it, but to date I have not as my background in security tells me that the deficiencies in TSA policy and procedure are not a loss but add to the flexibility that the TSA needs to do its job in the environment it finds itself in. The security requirements of my airport are not the same as those of, lets say SFO, or LAS, or even JFK. That flexibility allows us to modify process to meet the needs of the traveling public and the TSA population both at the same time.
I'd be careful with that blind trust. While it's nice that you trust your employer, do you trust them enough that they wouldn't throw you under the bus and leave you on your own if TSA was sued or if something bad were to happen?
TSA, as part of the government, has sovereign immunity meaning they can only be sued if they consent to it. It's easy for them to blame the screener as a rogue screener overstepping his bounds or as an incompetent screener. Thus as others have said, by keeping you in the dark, it makes it much easier for TSA as an organization to distance itself from its screeners and throwing the screener under the bus. Ignorance of the law won't be a valid defense and TSA will probably disavow any knowledge of "asking" the employee to do something. Plausible deniability.