Originally Posted by Bart
The manicure scissors are the overkill part of the prohibited items list, and I hope that these will soon become permitted items. Same holds true of the baby Swiss Army knives with the small blades.
Disagree about holding anything that belongs to passengers. I never do it. Seen too many people get burned either holding something that was never reclaimed and/or the passenger come back and claim either that wasn't the item they left behind or that there was some imaginary damage to their item. I try to be as courteous as possible with passengers in many areas; however, when it comes to prohibited items, I play it strictly down the center and give them the option of either leaving the checkpoint to divest the item (check it in baggage, mail it, give the item to a non-travelling companion or take it back to their car) or surrender the item to us. I never offer to hold it for them even if they aren't travelling. The liability is not worth it.
To fellow TSA screeners: when you hold an item for someone, you have deviated from the SOP and assume full personal responsibility. TSA is not going to back you up should anything occur to complicate the situation because you simply are not supposed to hold prohibited items for anybody. The options are quite clear. It's all your choice, but even holding the item and not having it stored inside the amnesty/prohibited items box already puts you in violation of standard procedure. Something for you to think about.
I'm sure you ARE correct about SOP. I'm just glad that this gentleman gave me the option. It was a couple of years ago, so maybe the SOP was not as clearcut as it is now. I think those courtesies sometimes depend upon the airport and cities. Even though Houston is the 4th largest city in the US, and many parts of it have been overrun with Yankees (kidding, kidding
), I mean people, who don't understand courtesy, most of the people that the TSA has hired at IAH and many other southern airports do understand courtesy. I expect that a screener at Newark or LAX would not have provided me with the same option that this gentleman did.
FWIW, I disagree with many of the TSA's policies, but I have to say that, in my experience, TSA employees are better trained and more polite than those that previously manned the metal detectors.