Sorry, Bart... can't resist telling you that I absolutely and totally agree with you! I, too, believe TSA most definitely and LITERALLY "...has it's ACT together..." Forgive me for bandying words, but... OH, yes! Very appropriate! ;)

Despite your acumen and adroitness at what you do, if a lowly ticket agent from... oh, let's choose an airline at random... UNITED, for example, has a bad day and presses the SSSS code onto a BP to publicly spank a PAX, YOU are still obligated to secondary that PAX, right? I'm sure you are an expert at doing this exactly per reg. Problem is, TSA and its employees are used as public punishers every day for no better reasons than what I've just stated. Also, the TA has 'over 100' reasons or parameters (or whatever term is p.c. to call the camouflage today) to hide behind to 'justify' sending the PAX to the mini-hell of public humiliation, where you DO your duty with "dignity and respect". Oh, lord! Do you screener folks really BUY this crap? Or just keep swallowing hard when you cash yer checks?

They say if you get lost in the scrub forests of Iceland, the best way to get 'un-lost' is to stand up! IMHO, the screeners all need to stand up more often.

I don't understand your point, Lumpy. My experience is not that the airline agents arbitrarily punch the SSSS code but the opposite: that they don't apply the exemptions when given the opportunity. The first person to see the SSSS on the boarding pass is the airline ticket agent. At that point, that person has an opportunity to determine if the passenger falls under the certain exemptions allowed by the FAA and TSA (e.g. infants, children under 12, military under official travel orders, etc.). Yet I still see these persons come through the checkpoint with the SSSS boarding passes. Problem is that I am obligated to follow through and give them the secondary screening (although under recent changes we are allowed some flexibility...not much...but we don't have to screen babies and kids...that's something.)

I'm afraid you'll never get a solid answer, though. I'm pointing fingers at the airlines and the airlines point fingers at TSA in the SSSS blame game. The truth is somewhere in the middle: yes, TSA regulations (which are based on federal law) do promulgate certain criteria for pre-selected secondary screenings. However, those same regulations also specify certain exemptions. And common sense should always apply: I refer to a previous post where I described that the passenger was not a selectee but the cello (musical instrument) he purchased a ticket for because it would take up a whole seat had SSSS on the boarding pass!

AHA! The ticket agent HATES cellos because he could never learn counterpoint on his own, so...

...and oh, yes. The TA raised his eyebrows very meaningfully at me when he punched in the SSSS on my BP. I'd love to raise them a bit higher for him, but... sigh. In order to accomplish that I'd have to go through the cattle chutes again.

Not in this lifetime.

Guess yer right, captain. I'll never get true answers. But I'm sure TSA will continue to refuse the answers with dignity and respect. Main point I'm trying to make is that TSA AND airlines USE 2ndary as a punishment: something to be avoided for Many Many Reasons, and given that coercive power, use it as such instead of the primary security reasons it's ostensibly intended for. Gonna stand me up in public and grope me? Then DO THE SAME TO EVERYONE ELSE BOARDING or show me your warrant. What's sauce for the old teacher is sauce for the pierced ex-con.

They haven't heard at LAS
 

Just at LAS (B) tonight. They don't know about the new procedures. I got secondary for shoes, no alarm. They take me in for screening, I tell them it is for shoes only. They believed me, but said it didn't matter, anyone who comes in the secondary line gets the exact same treatment. They wanded the shoes, no alarm. Then they started the full wanding and I told them that it was contrary to the new procedure. They consulted a supervisor who said that anyone sent to the secondary line gets the full procedure.

Another case of management running amuck!

Secondary isn't that bad. You go through screening faster - more time in the smokers lounge. Besides, maybe a Roman Republic is what we need. ;)

Only a few prefer liberty - the majority seek nothing more than fair masters. - Sallust

Management is doing fine. :cool:

Yesterday, we began our new shift schedule (we change schedules every six months). One of the supervisors I worked with yesterday finished her six month rotation as a trainer and is now working the floor. She was surprised at how we were still doing certain things and pointed out certain SOP changes. I was chagrined to find out that we've been working for the past two weeks completely oblivious to these changes.

If you are wearing criteria shoes and do not alarm the WTMD, we may conduct secondary screening consisting of an ETD sample of your footwear without you removing your shoes. The catch here is that you are screened immediately and/or are not in the holding area with other passengers awaiting the full handwanding screening. Otherwise, you will have to undergo the full handwanding.

If you are a selectee, when we search your bags, all we have to do is take an ETD sample of the interior of your carry-on bags rather than conduct a whole bag search as we've been doing in the past.

The other changes really don't affect you as passengers, but they do help us streamline certain methods at baggage and checkpoint.

Frustrates me that we've been working harder than we needed to these past two weeks and this only increases my contempt for a majority of the supervisors I work with. The one who pointed this out to me is one of the very few I truly respect.

Can you forward a copy of this directive to OAK and SFO? It appears they didn't get it. And still don't get it. :D

A couple items in this post cry out for devil's advocate treatment:

1) "The catch here is that you are screened immediately and/or are not in the holding area with other passengers awaiting the full handwanding screening. Otherwise, you will have to undergo the full handwanding."
With all of the information technology available nowadays, if TSA does not act quickly enough, a "shoe selectee" is forced to undergo full screening? How about giving shoe selectees a card signifying just ETD rather than full secondary screening? Such a procedure would save both passenger and screeners' time.

2) "If you are a selectee, when we search your bags, all we have to do is take an ETD sample of the interior of your carry-on bags rather than conduct a whole bag search as we've been doing in the past."

I thought that one of the reasons for the bag rooting procedure was to look for non-metallic prohibited items, not just explosives. I guess the danger from such non-prohibited items just went away, similar to the danger from lighters suddenly increasing this past April.

I am grateful for a shift toward risk management and expediting secondary searches, but one has to wonder about the geniuses who develop TSA policy.

Darn, I guess it will be much harder to catch all those terrorist pot smokers who stash a dime bag in their carry-on.

Why does TSA still insist on the terminology "Selectee", rather than "Public Example"?

ROFLMFAO!!!!!

Mrs. Super laugher her arse off too. :)

On another note, Mrs. Super finally had enough of the shoe carnivals after her experience at DCA last week.

Send a copy to SJC while you're at it. Pax still get the full treatment for refusing to de-shoe.

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