Without all the facts it's hard to know exactly what transpired, but I doubt the cops bothered to establish those facts either before going into 'command presence' mode.

An experienced and smart officer (which you're unlikely to find at an airport) would have determined what the TSA's beef was, assessed it for validity and acted accordingly. The first step in that process is not slapping the cuffs on and yet they do so in almost every case of a non-compliant pax. Hence my generalization, but not too far off the mark I think.