Maybe I'm wierd but after getting hassled twice at DFW for low hiking boots that go through fine at BOS (and there), I just take'm off automatically.

Oh and if you "curse" as the TSA officer in DFW remarked to me after I had uttered under my breath ("...") they do call a supervisor. Course just what "value" that added I have no idea but they do call for them.

-Stephen

Btw, I don't like the TSA, have strong "opinions" regarding how good a job they do so I just take the path of least resistance. The less time I'm at security the happier I am, and I'm sure the feeling is mutual. :)

The reason is intimidation. Someone in that position of authority just has to have the last word.

Unfortunately, cphobes, that's what they are counting on - that you just want to get through.

I still say we need mobs stomping their feet, hissing and booing.....can't you just hear it....the whole terminal filled with the roar of irate passengers...oh, the wonder of it all.

Mass civil disobedience.

Lol, fine by me. I have to work the full shift whether airport traffic is disrupted by protesters or not. I'll file this idea with the shoe protest someone on here posted a while back. Same idea, if you want to clog the checkpoint and stop the lines your hurting your fellow passengers more than us. :D

but... we're rosa parks! :td: :D

Because your agency is so reactive instead of proactive, some sort of "civil disobdience" might be the only way to give some people at the TSA a clue.

ten characters

Interesting comparison...

If a person enters the emergency room with a gunshot wound to the leg, doesn't the physician perform a full assessment of the entire body anyway? Afterall, only his leg is injured, right? Why would he need to check his chest or arms or back or even his head? Is there a chance of an underlying condition somewhere else on the body? Why bother taking his blood pressure? Just patch the hole and send him out. We need to process wound victims more quickly. The line in the ER is getting too long!

Screening sort of has the same approach. If there is an issue on a passenger, the passenger receives an overall assessment. It's possible that the passenger is trying to distract the screeners from something else by making an issue of the shoes. (hypothetical) So, we screen the shoes, but miss the switchblade he has in his waistband. All in the name of customer service and to reduce wait times and passenger "harassment."

If the pax doesn't alarm the WTMD (with or without the shoes), he doesn't have a switchblade in his wasitband. I don't see the argument for running a (metal-detecting) wand over a pax that doesn't alarm the WTMD.

Read the context of the conversation your colleague and I were having. It was more to his/her point of time efficiency, something he/she said was paramount.

I won't even bother responding to the "distracting" comment, because I have made numerous posts to those "what if" scenarios, and I just get empty answers.

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While we're on the subject of the DIA airport I want to share the following with the TSA people on this thread. This happened to me in October 2004 at DIA.

I was given a secondary search at DIA and now I'm thinking it must be because I didn't take my shoes off. They didn't set off the alarm, but I was sent to secondary. I've worn those same shoes on many international flights and never taken them off.

First of all, let me say I'm sorry about your experience. As soon as she was informed of your tenderness, she should have immediately slowed down and been much more gentle with you.

I don't know how a sterile surface could be supplied and maintained but I do understand your concern. If you were wearing shoes that didn't beep with the handwand, then I don't see why you would have had to remove them. But, if you do need to remove your shoes in the future, my best suggestion would be to ask to have your shoes returned before you stand to be wanded. Maybe one of the other TSAers can come up with a better solution?

Your suggestion is the best one. Nobody has to stand on the floor barefoot or in socks. Request that your shoes be returned to you once screened. Your feet are cleared by the hand wand, so you can put your shoes back on. In the screening environment, there is no way to provide nor maintain a sterile surface, unless you prefer standing on a slab of cold stainless steel after being wiped down with alcohol. :eek: I know I wouldn't. Just give me back my shoes!

If that was really what they were doing, then I'd be in favor of it... but an X-Ray by itself won't tell you anything. How will an X-ray tell you if there are explosives? You need to do an ETD and that's never done.

Greg

This won't work at all locations. I've asked for this very treatment, and was denied. In fact, in more than one airport, I was told that my shoes had to be off for the wanding. In fact, one airport, after I was wanded with socks on, I was asked to retrieve my own shoes from the xray down a ways and on the other side of glass barrier. When I asked them to return the shoes to me since 1) I didn't want to walk across the floor in socks, and 2) they took them away from me in the first place, they "threatened" to call a supervisor on me for not following instructions.

So, as with everything TSA says, YMMV -- from airport to airport, and checkpoint to checkpoint. Just because you would be accommodating in such a situation, doesn't mean your colleagues at other cities or checkpoints would behave similarly.