GUWonder

SNA_Flyer

Appreciate the explanation, but it's frustrating when you have a continually growing line and there is a new lane that could be opened next to it to alleviate it. You see enough TSO's standing around doing nothing/chatting and yet they refuse to open another lane. They don't need anybody else at the WTMD/Nude-o-scope setup because it's shared between the lanes. Just another xray operator.... This is just poor resource utilization and there is no excuse for it.

gsoltso

I agree with you 100%, and have preached it since the beginning. Being polite and professional is the baseline, not an anomaly.

I understand your frustration, as a TSO, I have the same frustration at times from the other side - if we could simply open another lane, or if we just had 2 more people I could knock this line down in a few minutes. TSOs see that lane build up like the passengers do, and while I like it to be busy (it makes the time go by a bit quicker), when we reach critical mass, TSOs notice it just like the passengers do. I wish we had a magical door where we could draw additional resources out at will, and let TSOs leave when they are not needed, but I have seen no instances of that yet.

I am reasonably certain that our local leadership is on the floor and in more consistent contact with the majority of the workforce, than the leadership at larger airports based upon design/geography/staffing. My AFSD knows the name of every employee at this airport, and can greet them on site. I am not so certain that type of an atmosphere is scalable to somewhere like ATL or LAX. Since they are more involved, I would think that there are more accountability factors at smaller airports.

*These are opinions, I have no empirical data to back these opinions up, simply personal experience

T-the-B

Amen, Boogie Dog! It takes exactly zero seconds for a "barker" to shut up and quit shouting at passengers. Likewise it takes zero seconds for a document checker to refrain from asking intrusive questions about destinations or other none of their business details or playing the "say your name" game.

Boggie Dog

I honestly believe that you would not find that to be the case far more often than you or I might expect. I know it is hard to take off your uniform and look at things from a passengers point of view but all of the reports that are made through various means aren't just made up.

I made a suggestion some time back that a TSA person be assigned to travel around and just evaluate how things are being done at checkpoints around the country. That person might get lucky and get a professional screener or perhaps not so lucky and get one that is just marking time.

edit to add:

In reference to Post #20 , a manager who moves around the workforce enough so their presence is not seen as an unusual event can better observe how things are running. I call it "Management by Walking Around".

If the workforce is uncomfortable around management, and I include senior management in that, then the normal behaviors of workers will never be observed.

I greeted a TDC at DFW a few years back with a "good morning" and he didn't even look up at me but made a grunting noise. Real impressive. Good way to set the mood at the TSA checkpoint.

chollie

I get so tired of hearing about the challenges facing TSA scheduling. After 17 years, TSA still can't schedule resources as effectively as airlines and airports are required to do every single day of the year.

TSA, like airports and airlines, knows when the holidays are, when the cruise ships are coming in, when a major weather event is forecast. They know when the first flight will depart (don't tell people to arrive two hours ahead of time when the checkpoint doesn't even open until one hour before the first flight departure) and they know when the latest flights will go out. They know the traffic loads, so there's no reason for shutting Pre early on a Friday night at a major hub.

There's just no reason for the poor allocation of resources and schedules.

Loren Pechtel

In other words you ran into a work action.

KDS

And "zero seconds" to stop asking me three times if my pockets are empty -- once by the "arranger" at the conveyor belt to the X-ray machine, once by the "guardian" to the MMW, and once by the person at the exit of the MMW. Sheesh, isn't that what the MMW is for -- to determine if my pockets are empty? I am getting tired of having to tell the scientific truth that my pockets are not "empty" because they contain air. Why must I answer this question just to get through the MMW?

gsoltso

One reason that multiple TSOs ask you the same questions repeatedly, is because they consistently have people tell them "No, my pockets are empty", only to have that passenger alarm in five areas that correspond to pockets, and when they begin the pat down to clear those areas, they pull out a cell phone, a wallet 4 inches thick, a set of keys, $4.38 in various coins, a coin purse that is full, a 4 oz bottle of axe body spray and half a ham sandwich. I understand you can sometimes get frustrated that they may ask you questions multiple times, but there is an articulable reason behind it.

KDS

Perhaps... however, the anger expressed by TSA people when I won't incriminate myself by answering the question is inexcusable. And as a frequent frequent flyer, my pockets are always empty -- except for air. And, I do not get asked this stupid question outside the USA -- and those security people do not get visibly angry about the process nor with the travelers.

Explorer789

​​​​​​​Maybe for the standard line but what's their excuse for the Pre line? Someone who has Pre knows the procedure and clearly isn't their first time flying. I have even got into the habit of starting to clear out my pockets even while waiting in line for the first agent to scan the boarding pass and check ID. So when I get to the belt, I just put bags in the bin and I'm done. Yet I still get some agents from time to time asking if I'm hiding something in pockets or have liquids.

WillCAD

Don't forget - the PreCheck lanes continue to be filled by randomly selected travelers who are not part of the program and don't actually know what to expect. Not to mention the fact that it's impossible to predict in advance when the PreCheck lanes will use WTMD (which doesn't require empty pockets, only lack of metal) and when they'll use MMW (which requires completely empty pockets), so sometimes even the seasoned traveler will guess wrong and leave something in their pockets.

Of course, you also have to remember that the TSOs who staff the PreCheck lanes are the same TSOs who staff the regular lanes, and with the immense cognitive burden placed on them by their unfathomably difficult, dangerous, and indispensable positions, they can easily forget some of the finer points of their occupation, such as which lane they're staffing at any given moment.

But then again, who among us has not forgotten where they were and what they were doing in the middle of a busy work day?

Boggie Dog

The fact that TSA's WBI alarms on non-WEI items proves TSA's searches exceed their mandate.

WillCAD

Not really, it just proves that WBI is a completely ineffective screening methodology.

chollie

I very rarely travel with electronics. I'm a bit of a Luddite. A couple years ago, I'm unloading on the belt. The belt monitor says 'electronics out'.

I don't have any electronics, finish loading the bins. Screener holds up my bag, makes direct eye contact and barks again, louder, 'ALL electronics have to come out' in a threatening tone. I say, in the groveling voice, eyes lowered respectfully, that I always use with screeners, that I don't have any electronics. More verbal threats. He follows the bag through as I go get my full-body hands-on screening. Meanwhile, I see the belt stop and him looking over the xray screener's shoulder. Still no electronics. Follows the bag through for a bag check. Still no electronics.

Yeah, that's me, just another pax who has nothing better to do than to deliberately lie to a screener. Sorry, folks, that screener's behavior was rude and unprofessional and he owed me an apology for accusing me of lying.

Some folks (not me, not since I got re-educated) have pointed out that many screeners are less than truthful, making things up all the time, so it's hard to understand why they all assume that anyone who has forgotten something in a pocket is a liar trying to annoy the screener.

Personally, all of my most unpleasant encounters with screeners have involved those screeners challenging or questioning my honesty in some way. I think those screeners know how offensive that is and that they can insult me any way they want, because I can not respond in kind if I want to fly and not get watchlisted for permanent harassment.

It's been several years, so things may have changed, but I connected through Taipei once. Businessmen going through security couldn't be bothered to empty their pockets, and of course, as a non-US airport they already didn't have to take their shoes off. I watched one after another set the WTMD off, step aside on to a circle painted on the floor, get quickly wanded head-to-toe and on then they were on their way

Yes, it was faster and easier and more convenient to NOT empty pockets - just step aside, take the quick wanding, and proceed.

eta: my comments regarding the screener who was angry with me because I didn't unpack the electronics I wasn't carrying in no way suggest criticism of any individual TSOs or the agency itself. In his defense, the screener's behavior, which would be properly considered unprofessional in virtually any other setting, was completely understandable. He's working a terribly stressful job, he doesn't know if I honestly have no electronics (highly suspicious, almost criminally so) and he doesn't know if I am a sophisticated threat and he is about to lose his life defending people like me. I should have made more of an effort - I should have packed an electronic item to remove.

Some folks (not me - I've been forcibly re-educated) would say that it's kind of ridiculous that after 17 years, an agency of 50,000 still insists on trying to train and re-train members of the public to accommodate constantly changing and unpredictable 'rules'.

Train and re-train the entire flying population, many of whom won't set foot on a plane once in five years. TSA keeps doing that instead of emulating their counterparts across the world. Why not train 50,000 screeners who show up every day and attend an 'academy' that people forget tissues in their pockets - and accusing them when it's quite likely that the NoS will falsely alert on a pleat or a patch of sweat, neither of which can be removed. Why not train 50,000 screeners instead of trying to constantly retrain millions of infrequent flyers?

Kind of like McDonald''s taking down their menus, changing items every day, changing recipes every day, allowing complete employee 'discretion' and then blaming the customers for not knowing the menu or what to expect. You can double the headcount, but if half of the employees are still playing with their phones and chatting while others are trying to 'educate' customers on the spot, you aren't going to improve the situation. Yeah, bark at the customers instead of training the employees, makes perfect sense.