I don't believe that the particular individual lapses* are institutional policy, but the institutional policy of using SSI to hiding the rules and SOPs make lapses like these inevitable. TSA prides itself on the poor management that allows one place or one "bad apple" to not follow the rules--it is an integral part of its Keystone-Kops unpredictability strategery. The policy grows bad apples. From the outside, it looks like TSA's sloppy management doesn't care enough to make sure its own rules are understood and followed--how can we be sure it isn't making bigger mistakes.

* Like my incident: The STL TSO supervisor pulled the gel-pack out of my baby's bag, and told me gel-packs were only allowed for medicines, not infants. At the time, I accepted that the guy knew the rules he was enforcing. After a few travel delays, 13 oz of my wife's pumped breast milk spoiled and she cried as we poured it down the drain. When I re-read the policy and saw that I had remembered what I read: Breast milk is in the same category as liquid medications. , I got mad. Bob and several TSOs apologized for the error of the "bad apple" STL TSO supervisor, but TSA really can't make us whole and replace the irreplaceable breastmilk. I'm done with crying over the spoiled milk. But in the future, why should we trust TSA with breastmilk if no one can guarantee that we can carry breastmilk safely on an airplane? (Recently, because of this incident, my wife didn't even try to save 12 days worth of breast milk from a solo extended overseas trip.)