Here's an update...

After my experience last week, I exchanged two sets of emails with the TSA's "Contact Center". The first one was a rather generic reply about the need for shoe searches and the second suggested I call their phone center for more information.

Today I decided to call, and had little additional luck. The woman I spoke with was little additional help. She ran around in circles and seemed to read pre-scripted lines about the rights of screeners to conduct secondary searching in cases where shoes were 'suspicious' while ignoring my comments about requiring secondary searches of all people who didn't remove their shoes. When I asked to speak to a supervisor, I was rebuffed... as was when I asked for the contact information for the Federal Security Director (FSD) at CMH. She said she could take down my contact information and pass it along but that was it. I thanked her and hung up.

After a few minutes of searching on the Internet, I found both the name and phone number of the FSD at CMH, a gentleman by the name of Thomas Rice. On a whim, I decided to call the number. After several rings, the phone was answered by a voice saying "Hello, Thomas Rice". I was a little surprised -- I figured at best, I would have several layers of secretary's to fight through.

I explained the situation that I encountered and my concerns. Mr. Rice seemed very concerned about the situation and my thoughts on what happened. He agreed with my understanding that not removing your shoes should not be an automatic trigger for a secondary inspection while mentioning the concerns about the need for shoe inspections.

He asked for details of my specific incident. Unfortunately, I had not obtained names or TSA badge numbers -- so he requested the location (down the the screening lane), time, date and description of the screeners involved.

He indicated that he would look into what happened and even if he could not identify the specific people involved would bring it up at a series of town hall meetings he would have with the TSA employees next week. He also said he would provide a written follow-up to me in the next few weeks.

While my experiences with the TSA Contact Center were less than helpful, I'm very glad I took the effort to contact Mr. Rice. I'll post information on whatever I hear over the next few weeks.

Greg