Originally Posted by
RichardKenner
I disagree. If all we have are anecdotes then, given the huge amount of travelers and anecdotes at many order of magnitude lower rate, I think that shows the majority are doing things right.
And it's quite possible to tell if something's being done right without knowing SOP. A few weeks ago, my gate at DFW was directly opposite a checkpoint. I watched two standard pat-downs done (they appeared to be WTMD alarms). I don't know the SOP, but it was 100% clear to me that they were done properly. Why? Firstly, because I saw two TSOs do exactly the same thing. And secondly because it made sense: the goal of the pat-down was to search for objects hidden under the clothing and what was done was consistent with that goal.
First, although I accept that you think the majority are doing things right, I fail to see how you can prove it. Again, we don't have measures.
Next, your thinking that the pat down was done properly only demonstrates that your are assessing it against your own internal ideas of right and wrong (e.g. "made sense"), rather than any written SOP. In other words, the second of the two alternatives I offered. I submit that any objective work done by an auditor to assess "right" or "wrong" would use the SOP, and not someone's internal ideas.
Finally, the fact that two of 43,000 screeners do the pat down the same way proves nothing about "right" or "wrong"; it only demonstrates consistency for that small percentage of screeners at that given time.