I'll hold off on discussing TSA because others already have, buy I will discuss how my airport was structured from an airport security/LEO side.

1. Officer/Patrolman - essentially the airport's beat officer who will almost always be your first point of contact.

2. Sergeant - supervisory officer. Generally we had 2-3 per shift. If you asked for a "supervisor" this is what you got.

3. Lieutenant - shift commander. 1 per shift. For us he/she was usually out and about doing police things. You could request him or her, but it could take some time for the Lieutenant to show up.

4. Major - manager. We had 2 on the force. One responsible for standard ops and one responsible for the nonstandard stuff (SWAT, EOD, VIP security, etc). Hit or miss as to whether you could get one if requested.

5. Chief - pretty self-explanatory. Probably not going to get him to show up at a scene unless something has gone drastically wrong.

6. COO - PD reported through the chief operating officer's office, but our COO was never going to overrule a decision by the chief.

7. CEO - self explanatory. Same as COO regarding overruling Chief.

We also had Public Safety Officers - non-LEO security personnel who were responsible for security operations that don't require an LEO (sterile exits, vehicle ramp access checkpoints, etc).

Generally our LEOs were reasonable people. Not going to threaten arrest for not obeying a TSO and the like. In fact, most of our LEOs actively hated TSOs.

There were other areas of the security apparatus as well, such as surveillance, dispatch and the like but their interaction with the public was extremely limited.