Originally Posted by
chollie
(sigh)
This makes me think of
gsoltso - not that he would advocate something like this happening, but that he expressed dissatisfaction with airing TSA's blunders in the media.
TSA's official statement was better word-smithed, but still telling. The spokesperson says the tapes didn't show any females rolling up their sleeves. Why didn't they show the actual footage of the pax? I suspect it's for any number of reasons: they never bothered to look at the tape, the tape doesn't exist because it was turned off, not covering the checkpoint area in question or deleted, or it showed that the pax was telling the truth and TSA lied.
TSA points the blame (again) back at the pax if anything
did go wrong, saying that:
1) they can't address a problem if the pax doesn't report it (true, except when a pax
does report it to TSA, nothing happens. If a pax reports it to the media, at least the TSA spokesperson has to get up off his/her fat butt and make a statement denying the pax's story (as they did in this case); if it's egregious enough
and gets in the media big time, Bob makes a blog post blaming the pax.
TSA will help their reputation immensely if they released the exculpatory tapes ALL the time (they were quick to do so when a pax stole a rolex, not so quick when TSO Ramirez stole an Ipad. In that case, they had taken no action, even a tape review, two weeks after the theft report).
2) Sickeningly, as so often happens in these situations, the TSA reminded pax that private screenings are available. Ah, yes, the private, non-filmable screenings where the pax+witness are out-numbered by TSOs, so it is even more a 'he said/she said' situation than it already is at the checkpoint.
Private gropes are the most frightening thing that can happen at a checkpoint, because TSA knows it can do anything in that room with impunity - no random camera footage from a possible 'good apple' that might go whistle-blower if the offense is egregious enough, no random pax taking a telling cellphone pix.
In other words, TSA's answer to complaints of misconduct in an area supposedly covered by cameras is 'let us take you into the back room next time, trust us'.
Sorry I missed this earlier. It is not that I disagree with airing negative things about TSA at all, quite the opposite - I recommend that we take it on the chin publicly when we are proved conclusively in the wrong. I disagree with taking a story on face value, with nothing to back it up (even when it is something we post). I wish every square inch of the checkpoint was under video for 2 reasons:
1) to protect the passengers from theft, mistreatment and to give us something to consult for complaints lodged by a passenger.
2) to protect the TSOs from the exact same things and to give us something to consult when a complaint is lodged against an employee.
One problem that I notice is in many cases
some folks automatically take the side of the person making a claim, with nothing to back it up but a statement made (in a myriad of locations - blogs, newsies, etc). Even if TSA reviews video and finds nothing to support the story being posted (such as in the case of the Marine that was reported to have been asked to remove his prosthetics), the response is often too late, or too vague to effectively address the issue.
In some cases these stories are pure hogwash, in some cases, these stories are the truth and we should do something about it - in either case, we should be allowed a bit of time for due diligence, to make certain we do what we are
supposed to do. Sadly, that does not seem to be the case in this post "CSI" world, where every situation can be solved perfectly in an hour or less
.
I also happen to think that we should be training more often on how to best help people with disabilities transit the checkpoints. Our first question to a passenger with a disability should be "how may we help you today" and we should communicate effectively with that passenger throughout the entire process. This is something that I hear a great many complaints on, and tend to agree with - not all passengers with a disability need our assistance in any way shape or form, while some need as much help as they can get. We should be more uniformly prepared to deal with any of those circumstances at any time. I think that the program for Passenger Support Specialists is a good start for TSA, I think it will help those passengers a great deal. On the other hand, I think that it should not be a select group of employees that are able to effectively assist this group of passengers through - it should be
all of us effectively assisting
all passengers through equally.