Is there anything in the TSA's protocols against telling the passenger what the TSO is looking for in their bag?

A couple of months ago, my personal item, a North Face Router Transit Backpack, was pulled out for manual inspection in the PreCheck lanes at LAX. It has many zippers and several compartments, so I offered to guide the TSO to the location of object of the search if he were to tell me what he was looking for (I had several Li-ion battery powered electronic devices in the backpack, including an HP Spectre x360 computer, rechargeable Beats noise-cancelling headphones and a Samsung 10,000 mAh portable cellphone charger).

I don't recall the exact answer, but he refused to tell me what he was looking for and proceeded to open just about every compartment, while constantly referring to the x-ray image on his computer monitor. Finally, he opened my Dopp kit and discontinued the search when apparently noticing a new, still in its paper wrapping, 5 oz. bar of soap.

He started repacking my bag. I asked to be allowed do it myself, as I can organize the contents to make the backpack less bulky and fit under the seat; he let me. However, when I inquired about what triggered the search - in order to avoid similar issues in the future - he wouldn't tell me.

IIRC, this has been discussed in the past on this forum.

The problem is that when a pax asks what triggered the alarm, the TSO has no way of knowing if the pax is an innocent person trying to educate himself on how to improve the checkpoint process for everyone or a bad guy 'testing' the system.

If hypothetical 'bad guy' has three questionable items, TSA doesn't want to reveal to him which one(s) got caught by the xray. That just makes it easier for 'bad guy' to find a way to avoid detection the next time.

Nearly every time my wife or I have had a bag check, the screener has pointed out what the problem item was. Sometimes they even ask, as they start the search, "Looks like you might have a such-and-such? I just need to check it." or something similar.

YMMV obviously.

Except you completely ignored the statement you highlighted. I stated that if a TSO is professional and courteous - it becomes about policy or personal issues on the passengers part, not the TSO in front of them. One snippet of video does not encompass the entire event that happened. I will not excuse the attitude or behavior by the individual in this video, I have no problem saying that this should have been handled differently. I have done so in the past - your willful omission of that says volumes. I openly agree that we have some employees that exhibit a lack of professionalism (at least some of the time, based upon the videos I have seen). Painting our entire workforce with that same brush is a shallow abuse of words, and shows an unwillingness to see other things that are there. Power-trippers, thieves and unprofessional TSOs are not acceptable, and never will be - if you see it, please file complaints, or link them to me here, I will send them to the customer service folks. These types of videos, I will welcome the chance to forward those to the customer service folk at HQ.

I have never heard of a direct prohibition of communicating with a passenger about items in their bags during a bag check, actually, the opposite has always been the case in my experience. I like to talk to the passenger as I am doing a bag check, it helps to set their mind at ease, and sometimes they can help you locate something small, or find a specific compartment that holds the item you are looking for. The main prohibitions are for the passenger not to touch the bag or anything that is taken out of it during the bag check (which has been the case since roll out). As far as repacking, if it is one item I have removed, I usually place it back as close to the original position as possible, if I have to take several items out, I ask the passenger if they would like to repack the bag, or if they would like me to do it - recognizing that many frequent or business travelers pack their bag a certain way is just using common sense. Talking to a passenger while doing the bag check, asking questions, and just treating them like a human being will often make a bag check more efficient for both of us. I don't understand not telling you what the item was on the back end, you just watched the TSO take the item out of the bag and do some form of inspection on it - logic would dictate that you can see what I am looking at, why not tell you to remove any chance of confusion, as well as let you prepare differently in the future if you so desire.

I see TSA screeners on a different level than you do. We are on opposite sides of the fence and our views will be based on which side we are viewing the event from. There have been way too many unprofessional TSA screeners I have run across in my travels. Are they the norm? I certainly hope not but they are far more likely to leave a lasting impression than the guy/gal quietly doing their job the right way. I purposely pulled an example of about as far from professional that I could find with the point being that this guy has advanced from a day one screener to a STSO who trains and leads others. TSA's chain of command tolerates this person and even promoted him. This wasn't a first time act for this guy, just the first time it was recorded. I'm guessing this guys command considered him a professional. You paint TSA as all top notch professionals who wouldn't say a bad word if someone stomp their foot. I don't see it that way. I know that in any distribution of people there will be good, average, and bad people. Sadly early on TSA seems to get a barrel full of the worst of the worse. It will take years to get rid of them through attrition. Also, if TSA screeners are taught that they are on the front lines of the war on terror then I think that will color how they interact with people. TSA is not even close to the front lines and their jobs aren't a high risk occupation. TSA attitude developed in new hires plays a role on how passengers will be treated as the employee grows with the organization. Bad trainers, bad employees.

You often say to file complaints. I have and nothing comes of them. I had one incident covered up by the airports FSD. Complaints used to be trashed, others just gather dust. Whatever the process is now I don't know, hopefully someone has required investigation of received complaints.

While we are doing some painting perhaps mixing our colors would be helpful!

Recall this from the OIG's recent report:

That pretty much says that TSA will hire anyone who can pass a background check.

That could be very helpful at times. I recall some years ago going through security at PVG. They were looking for something without much luck, I had no idea from their description what it might be. Then they showed me the x-ray--bingo. It was a set of chopsticks my wife had bought and which I didn't realize were metal. I had packed it as I generally do such long, thin items that I want to protect--against the handle rails, behind the liner. (They stay in place much better that way. I wouldn't have done that had I realized what they were made of.)

"Sir what part of organic do you not understand ?"

You: Well my bag and most everything is organic"

" So you want to be a smart alec? Secondary including cavity search" !

Apparently, not too many screeners know that fact.

In case someone from ;)TSA might read it !

Agreed, in that case, it could possibly have saved a little time, and built a bit of rapport with you. I generally find that if you communicate with the passenger, they have a better opinion of the individual, the organization and their trip usually gets off to a better start (bonus, it may help the TSO to find an alarming item quicker).

One consistent challenge for globe hoppers (and the organization), or frequent flyers is the difference in social norms and mores depending upon geography. What passes for acceptable and professional here, is a bit different than what passes for acceptable and professional at LGA or ATL or LAX. Where someone from here may take umbrage at being given a slight brush off or being hurried along, or having someone with a clipped speech pattern (even though it is simply a reflection of what is socially acceptable at that location), others would not. I would love for all TSOs to be the same level of professional 100% of the time, but sadly that does not appear to be realistic, so I shift my hopes to having the organization move to combat any unprofessional behavior as soon as possible.

As Boggie pointed out above, an unprofessional TSO makes a bigger footprint than TSOs that come to work, do the job right, and work with passengers all day long in a courteous and professional manner. One terrible experience with that individual TSO - or worse yet, a series of them, can understandably create resentment in the passenger. After a couple of experiences like that, some folks have a hard time separating the ones that are unprofessional from the ones that are simply trying to help them get through with less challenge.