I've got a couple responses to this entire thread...
1) TSA Officers aren't cops.
This seems to me to be such a no brainer that it isn't worth saying. Sure police officers are given plenty of discretion. And they are also given the power to arrest, the power to carry and use firearms, etc.
2) Cops probably have less discretion than you think.
Sure cops can decide who to give a ticket to. But they have an SOP and a set of rules they have to go by. They probably are told exactly how to frisk people, how and when to search a vehicle, etc. I bet the areas in which they have discretion are clearly outlined in their policies and procedures.
3) TSA Officers do have discretion.
But it is within their scope of authority. That is I have to communicate certain things to passengers before I hand wand them or screen their bags. It is up to me how I do that. But I don't have the authority to deviate from the SOP when it clearly tells me to do something a certain way as in the video tape example.
4) TSA Officers don't pay much attention to the reasons behind the SOP.
None of us has any input into the formation of the SOP. It is presented to us, and we are told to follow it. Heck I don't even know who writes the SOP.
Thinking about the problems with the SOP is a losing proposition for a TSA Officer. It will drive you crazy and there is nothing you can do about it. It is what it is.
I know that passengers get real frustrated with the "It's SOP" answer. But it is really all we've got. You might be able to convince me on a personal level that your pocket knife isn't a threat to aviation. However I don't have the authority to go against established policy. And no one who works for TSA at an airport does.
5) SOP violations are a symptom not the problem.
Heck SOP problems are just the visible sign of all sorts of problems. These include bad management, poor direction from headquarters in Washington DC, terrible federal hiring processes, etc.
I don't think that going to a private system is the solution because I see contractors basically just squeezing as much cash out of the federal government but providing crappy service. Every other privatized government operation that I see is basically a joke. Check out the privatized security at military bases around the country.
I have a bunch of ideas to make the system better. But the bottom line for me is that I would make every level of the organization accountable not just for knowing the SOP but following it. I'd hire independent evaluators to check each airport on a regular basis.
Then I would make raises, promotions, and discipline decisions based largely on the report of these auditors. Screeners who want raises and promotions would need to demonstrate a pattern of following the SOP. Likewise Leads, Supervisors, Screening Managers, FSDs would need to ensure that their people were following the SOP.
This would need to be a substantial oversight effort. You can't evaluate an airport with one pass through a checkpoint. And you wouldn't remove someone from his job simply because of one report. The auditors would have to visit the airport multiple times, write reports on violations, and look for improvement or failure to improve.
It would end the cowboy mentality that happens at every level of the organization. Their needs to be oversight. Good screeners want to be evaluated and have no problem having their actions observed.
6) TSA needs to do a better job spreading information.
There are some parts of the SOP and some TSA info that probably needs to be kept from the general public. But there should be a document that TSA can show to the public and make available online that outlines some basic TSA policies. The supervisor should have access to a document that says "video tape cassettes must be x-rayed" or whatever.
SSI shouldn't be a way for the TSA to avoid accountability. It should be designed to keep sensitive info away from people who would harm us. And reasonable speaking any document made available to as many people as the SOP is, is probably in the terrorists hands already.