I've read this thread with some curiousity, amusement, and, honestly, disgust as well.
First, I'll give kudos where they're deserved. gsoltso has been nothing but polite, courteous, and has actually gone out of his way to be as helpful as his employer allows him to be in answering questions and concerns. Note what I said there - as his employer allows him. Yet some of you attack him because he won't tell you something that is "SSI". You really want him to lose his job, as abhorrent as we find what he does, because of an internet forum?
Come on guys, it's Christmas (Festivus, whatever you like).
I see a *LOT* of shooting of the messenger, and not a lot of being angry at the message. It's OK, I do it too. However, it HAS to stop. If we're to be taken seriously, the message has to be the target, not the individual stating it.
So I'll thank gsoltso for what he has contributed to this thread. If I flew out of Greensboro, I'd absolutely offer to meet him for a cup of coffee and discuss life, the universe, and everything. I dare say he's given more information than some of our other resident TSOs, and has done so in a matter that is neither condenscending or confrontational, which is more than I can say for some of you.
Don't let that mean I like who he works for. Far from it.
I think I can go out on a limb here and say we're all sick and tired of what the TSA and the DHS has foisted on us.
Here's my laundry list:
1. SOP. For the life of me, I cannot understand why this is SSI. I honestly think that the part regarding pax screening could absolutely be released to the public. I understand why the TSA thinks keeping it secret is good. But, if the TSA wanted to make the security process as smooth as possible, they'd tell us exactly how to prepare for screening, and more importantly, how that screening *should* proceed. I dare say this will not give terrorists a playbook, it will give the pax what to prepare for, how they should be treated, and might actually give a BDO better opportunity actually do what BDOs do. This leads me to my 2nd point...
2. Consistency between locations. Oh...My...GOD, this is horrible. I know how I'm treated at RDU, and it certainly doesn't square with how I'm treated at EWR, which doesn't square with what happens at MCO, etc etc etc. I blame training and the fact that the SOP isn't public knowledge, the local TSOs take liberty. If each and EVERY airport did everything the same, to the lines of an SOP that is public, I honestly think complaints about what the TSA does would go away.
3. WBI - The complaint du jure. I wouldn't have a problem with WBI if it were used to clear an alarm from the WTMD. But its use as a primary screening method is a violation of the 4th amendment. Also, I really want to see some peer reviewed data about both methods of WBI before I'm ready to say maybe. There is none. Show me the data.
4. "Enhanced" patdowns. There is no reason on earth that a person wishing to travel via air should have to be subjected to a pat down that would exceed what some maximum security prisons subject prisoners to. If the secondary shows a problem in a specific location, then concentrate on that. There is no need to check my wife's breasts if an alarm is for something around her ankles. WBI combined with a local patdown for an alarm as a secondary to a WTMD alarm (patdown only necessary if the WBI shows further alarm) would be a better option than the grope.
5. Mission creep. OMG. It's not the TSA's job to look for drugs in a bag, or check for >$10k cash, or check the metro, or sit at a bus terminal, or sit outside my driveway. Show you can do one thing well first before you branch out. You haven't done that yet.
6. Retaliation. Yes, human nature is to lash out or "get even" with someone who disrupts your routine. We all do it. However, to bark at a pax who has the audacity to bring their kids to the airport during Thanksgiving then take your anger with them out on the next pax (me) isn't acceptable. To mark a BP with SSSS because someone realizes you're trying to SPOT them and doesn't want to play isn't acceptable. Or to grab breasts or genitals because someone decides to opt out of WBI isn't acceptable. So take a breath.
7. Training. Or, more accurately, lack of. That a TDC doesn't know what a NEXUS card is is unacceptable. Even worse, that he doesn't know how to look the darned thing up in the manual. I've seen that manual (most local PD's have one) and it's not all that hard to use. That 2 TSO's do a pat down differently is not acceptable. Train your people, 80 hours, 100 hours, 200 hours, whatever it takes to get it into their heads. Enforce proper techniques through escalating disciplinary action. Tell the people that you do care for what they think, rather than blow off a complaint.
Yeah, my novel is done. I don't blame individual TSOs for this list. I blame the TSA and the DHS. However, I can stop and say it's not always the TSOs fault that something has gone amiss - it could be his training, it could be ignorance, it could be a breakdown in communication, it could be (likely) bad policy making.
Yes the TSO is a target. Because he's the face of the TSA, the one we all interact with, it makes it easy. It shouldn't necessarily be this way exclusively.
However, the commentary I see on here doesn't help our cause, which is true TSA reform. It only makes us look like immature brats crying because we can't get our way. Lets get together and work for the common goal, rise above the name calling, and make progress.
Otherwise, we get nowhere.
<steps off soapbox>