I agree completely, and I used the words "stereotypical image" for a reason - because that is the image that's often shown in the movies.

There is no question that most DIs - like most military folks I know - are exceptionally good people.

I'd like to say that I haven't experienced any of what you are talking about, but I've seen it all too recently at both PHL and TUS.

I miss the airports in Europe with their polite and efficient screeners. I also like airports like LAS where they have a person on TV doing the briefing in a calm methodical method. No screeching, no power tripping, just nice, even-handed instruction.

I'll take it one step further. I think that most of the bullies that we see have become that way over time. I see far too many references to Nazis in this forum, and I think the Stanford prison experiment is a far better comparison. Obviously, the extent of the bullying is different, but it's an interesting read about how circumstances can change an otherwise "normal" person.

Mike

"The next time you take my property from me like that, I'll have you arrested."

As soon as TSA has cleared your carryons for airside, they have no right to touch anything. If someone grabbed something of mine from me, they'd hear about it.

Oh, I can't tell you how much I LOVE traveling through NRT... NO barking and they even give me slippers to wear while walking thru the WTMD (my shoes have metal eyeletts and I purposely take them off) .... ahhh what the TSA could learn... oh, did I mention the cool water bottle detectors they also have in Japan, no problems with liquids there ;)

Did you ever think to disregard things if the message wasn't intended for you?

The people the "barked" instructions apply to are the same ones who fail to read the 400 signs leading up the checkpoint.

I'm just curious as to how the TSA should get people to move efficiently in line.

Having traveled through FRA, BKK, DEL, NRT, GYE, SIN, AMS in the past 6 months... I havn't gotten "barked" at going through security at any of those airports... are passengers in Europe, Asia, S. America so much more different than in the US?

Do the passengers follow the posted rules? That should give you the answer.

Hard to disregard it when the screener is in my face while I have already placed my items in the bins and am patiently (or maybe not so patiently) waiting for the clown ahead of me to disgorge his pockets and computer. *I* am the one barked at, yet it's the guy ahead of me slowing down the line? What's wrong with this picture? My goal is to get through as efficiently as possible.

And yes, that was the case at BWI Pier C last Friday... when the TSA had only two screening stations open despite a very long line. Stop barking and start screening.

Y'know, I think that PAX are the same everywhere, or mostly so according to my experience.

Some countries just chose to have customer service employees (and that's what the TSA et. al. are) be polite and friendly and not bark at people.

And, y'know what? I am more likely to comply with a smile when I am told politely and with a smile than I am when I am barked at - the latter bringing up the otherwise long-gone anit-authoritarian adolecent rebel in me ;)

But then, I am weird that way: I actually prefer to be treated decently and politely.

How 'bout having the customer service staff members that are manning the checpoints telling us pax politely and with a smile when arriving at the WTMD what to do -- like they do in so many airports around the world?

That surely beats having it screamed to my face by some grumpy customer service employee.

Y'know, after living among other people for a while, I have noticed that among that which does not work is to tell people to "calm down" or "hurry up" or "get moving" -- most will, just out of spite and often unconsiously, do exactly the opposite. We don't like to be told what to do -- we like to be allowed to chose what to do.

Ever had a verbal fight with anyone and have the other party tell you to "callm down" (or a variation thereof)? Did that make you calmer, or just more angry at the other party for trying to tell you what to do? I'm almost certain that you didn't "calm down".

Law enforcement officers (Some? Most? All? I do not know how such are trained in the US, but I bet it's similar to elsewhere) learn about creating "voluntary compliance": getting the person in front of you to want to comply with your wishes, rather than to have to rely on packing heat. The customer service staff that the TSA has deployed at the WTMDs would do well by learning that too.

Example-time....

I flew out of ORY a while back, in my usual professional outfit, which involves a belt with a large metal belt-buckle.

In the US, the TSA customer service staff usually bark "Belt must come off, now", which leaves me somewhat iffed and unhappy since control is taken over my possessions and my person, and I am left with no choise.

Well, in ORY, the person at the checkpoint said "If you think your belt-buckle will make the detector sound, then you're welcome to take it off and put it through the X-ray, and save an extra trip back and forth, or if you're sure it won't make the detector beep, you can keep it on."

Guess what? In ORY, they gave me two options: to either chose to keep the belt and risk it beeping and the subsequent frisk/double-pass/SSSSS, or to chose to pass it through the X-ray". And so, taking the belt off was my choise and I felt good and even thankful that the lady helped me avoid hazzle.

In the US, my "choise" would be "do you want to fly today?" -- which is actually not a choise but a threat (we all know the difference between "threat" and "choise", yes?).

The final outcome (that my dangerous belt-buckle was X-rayed) was the same, but I as a PAX felt better in ORY, more willing to comply and to smile at the staff at the Xray and the WTMD and in general to "not make their life miserable" and do as they wanted quickly. I didn't time it, but I sure felt like the line was moving very fast and that I got through security in record-time and with no grump....something I've never noticed with TSA customer service agents involved.

This is basic "dealing-with-other-people" stuff, and my doctorate is not in psychology but in "something with computers. And since we all know that computer-people are not known for having the best people-skills in the world, if I can learn/understand the above, then so can everybody else....Especially those dealing with customers (including the customer service agents that the TSA employs).

So, you asked what I suppose was a serious question in how the TSA customer service agents should communicate with PAX. I've tried to answer, to justify my answer and to give an example of a place where what I suggest is succesfully deployed.

For a start, by getting rid of illogical rules such as no liquids/baggies, shoe carnival, the overkill prohibited item list and SSSS.

And therein lies the difference.

Here in the US, there is this magical assumption that just because a sign is posted, even multiple times, that's it's automatically going to be read and adhered to. TSA, including some on this board are incredulous as to how passengers don't read every one of the hundreds of signs at the airport.

In many airports outside of North America, there are a lot fewer of those signs. Yet things go a lot smoother there. Wonder why.

I can name a few reasons why the USA is different than other countries.
 

First off in other countries you don't have a "middle class" that might travel occasionally, but not regularly enough to keep up with the rules.

In other countries ALL WORKERS are expected to be treated with respect. In the USA the norm seems to be to beat up on any worker deemed less respectable than you. I was yelled at by my Australian wife because I didn't say Please TWICE when ordering something from a menu. My usual statement is "can I please have burger." She told me I was expected to say please at the beginning AND end of an order in Australia. Now that my friend is RESPECT.
TSA employees get so much disrespect that its just natural for some of it to flow back at the passengers. It might not be right, but its the way it is.

That is an amazingly revealing tale, on just so many levels.

I admire your posting that on a public BBS. ^