1. The TSA didn't catch Richard Reid. An alert FA and proactive pax did.
2. If Richard Reid had the shoes fit with explosives by a half-decent street corner cobler, the TSA wouldn't catch them. X-Ray machines don't catch explosives (if they are shaped identically in both shoes, so the shoes look the same in the x-ray).

If you have better things to do tonight, why are you still here? Your post is not worth responding to any further than that. No, that's not true. Many if not most of the TSA employees who post here use the word "whine." Do they teach you to do that in TSA school?

^ ^

My thoughts exactly.

Probably fancies themself to be in the other 10%. But I'm not buying that. :cool:

It doesn't matter... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki_security ;)

Yeah, I used to carry a mini box cutter prior to 9/11. It was simply a tool I normally had with me and I didn't change anything for flying.

OTACON72,
Given your responses here and in other threads, I must say that I am glad that you are no longer employed with TSA. If your attitude here is any resemblence to your attitude at work during your TSA tenure, something tells me that you were either terminated or quit in lieu of being terminated. I could not tolerate this type of behavior at my airport. If you left for greener pastures, you have my best wishes.

You fail to understand that the folks on this forum are only a fraction of a percent of the total traveling public. With every job, there will be those who will complain about the process. In many threads that I have read, their complaints are valid...extremely valid. Other complaints have you asking, "What the ----?"

Rather than talking back to them and calling them a bunch of whiners, use what they are saying. I frequent this board and occasionally post when appropriate. A lot of what's said here I use in my briefings with my TSA staff. I can get useful information as far as customer service and the points of view from a passenger's perspective.

I've heard so many folks use the phrase, "Well, I was polite until they gave me crap, so I gave it back." That is such the wrong way to address it. 99.99% of the time, the flyers are complaining about the system and not the screener. Most of the time when the flyers here are complaining about the screener, the complaint is valid because of the "I'll just give it back" mentality. In this line of work, you must have a thick skin, because regardless of how well you do your job, someone will complain. You have to be able to let it bounce off of you. Giving the argument back to the passenger only does one thing, you let the passenger win. If he/she gets under your skin, you lost.

I am a current TSA employee, and am proud to say so. Sometimes, I question the relevance of the processes that we must follow, but I do follow them. I also know that passengers don't agree with them, which means they'll complain. When I've had enough, I won't fire back at them. I'll simply leave the TSA, since I am no longer able to perform my job at the level TSA expects from me.

outstanding post ^^^^^^^^

you couldn't have said it better and i think the overall key to what you said is that the flyers are complaining about the system and not the screener. it is a system that is dysfunctional and with that, there is a trickle down effect which unfortunately affects the indivudals involved (both good and bad as there are some who can adapt to a bad sitution and make it better and those that just make a bad situation worse). kudos again to you for a post that was as simple as it could be and gets right to the point. ^^

I had an odd experience this past week: At MCO (Ted flight to IAD) TSA setup a folding table and stationed 4 TSA agents at the gate to do random bag checks. I haven't seen anything like that since the ban of all liquids on carryons last year.

What gives? None of my other flights last week had this.

Agreed. I don't necessarily have problems with the screeners as long as they're at least civil. I hate the policies they enforce and wonder how they can stand to do it. However, I have seen a lot of tools out there that really give TSA a bad name and are posterchildren for what's wrong with the agency.

When I go thru a checkpoint, I want to go thru with as little hassle as possible. In the shoe carnival days, I would hold them to the SOP even if it meant a secondary (for which a complaint was promptly filed). I don't go looking for a fight, but I won't tolerate attitude either.

Super

To add to TSASuper's post, remember that this particular agency's "trickle-down" effect does not terminate with the screener. It lands on the pax. Every time.

Use that for your next briefing, boss.

We are NOT 'customers' of the TSA!

Had an interesting experience flying in Europe: All of a sudden the securit-ygates started screening shoes in the airport I was flying from. This was on a domestic flight in Norway, a nation not normally connected to acts of terror. When it's my turn at the security-gate, the guard asks me to lift my right foot. I do so and he waves the magic wand around it. It goes beeeep. He looks at me, I look at him and say "No way! Try the other shoe!" I lift my left foot, he waves the wand with no resulting sound and waves me right through.

On the one hand, I'm happy at the display of common sense from the man. On the other, what if there were a weapon, or weaponisable item, concealed in my right shoe? It's a fine line to thread, and I tip my hat to those security-agents who are able to walk the line on a daily basis without getting stuck in a rule-loop. Guess it also helps that no one in Norway would take him, his employer or the airport to court if the worst were to happen ;-)