While a lot of people have issues with security personnel of all levels, i.e. police, TSA, CBP, can't simple training of these people help make their work environment better and the environment better for passengers?

* Teach them how to use soft skills to emotionally disarm and get passengers to relax. If passengers fail to relax, then that's a sign something's wrong. Keep smiling and keeping personal ego at bay while searching further. It'll be even more exciting and fun catching a passenger with contraband that way. (There's a good SNL skit where an attractive CPB lady at an airport got drug dealers and others to confess to her. You get the idea.)

* Check ego at the door. Smile. Have a sinister smile if you think you're about to make a bust but still need to further investigate.

* Only use the authoritative words if you think passenger is going to attack you or if you have to run after them - not to protect your ego just because a passenger demands politeness or civility.

* Don't ever yell unless you're running after someone and trying to arrest them.

e.g. "Please place the second black bag on table and open it for me for inspection."
"Ma'am. Just relax. I'm just going to search the bag, and you can watch."
"I'm sorry, sir. This beef can't enter the United States per agriculture policy."
"That's such a lovely diamond ring! Where did you get it?" -- Good way to see if the passenger acquired the ring abroad and failed to declare it.

I've seen some good cops and CPB people conduct their jobs remaining vigilant while maintaining a calm and civilized atmosphere. Is this too hard to ask for?

I'd actually like to give a shot at being an auxiliary (volunteer) police officer at my city to see what it's like.

ummm...Don't just chat about it in this forum. Go do it ^

I actually think that the CBP and ICE and for that matter, recently, the TSA seem to be pretty professional. Maybe there are not as many P's & Q's as we would like to hear, but I think that by and large they are doing pretty well. Oh and I listened for it the other day on my return to the US. I hit the Gateway machine, gave it my thumb prints and the agen at the booth next to me welcomed me back. I turned my receipt in upon exit, showed my passport with CBP sticker and received a "Thank you, I wish more people would use this."

Not bad for a 6 AM on a Saturday return to the US.

Good points and what you’re basically describing is customer service skills. Unfortunately, the TSA has made it clear that Engage! training is *not* about that.

I'll "relax" when the TSA is 5 years in the grave with a stake buried in its foul, Communist heart.

Never one to sugarcoat, Spiff, and I certainly agree. However, the points made by Wiirachay would have made a huge difference in how I felt I'd been treated last week at ORD (in my ORD "security"-grrr thread).

I wouldn't have been happy being singled out for the frisk but if I'd been treated respectfully and with dignity I would have a more positive view of the TSA (probably would not have referred to the power-tripper as a jacka**, for example).

What is so difficult about this concept? I've seen plenty of effective police officers, military folk, other TSA employees, etc., behave professionally. This simply should be the standard that is expected of TSA supervisors, management and on up, as well as staff working the checkpoints.

You can get your answer by reading about the Stanford Prison Experiment.

Mike

and don't forget the necklace of garlic....

TP,

May I suggest you quote each section first and then reply? It's rather cumbersome.

More like, "You're under arrest!"

"Sir, although this situation is tense for you, please cooperate so we can complete this." or "I can't understand you if you yell. Please calm down so I can understand you." (That was actually a post office supervisor who said that so some angry woman.)

Mainly, I'm talking about people who are unnecessarily hostile to honest passengers just trying to enter the country, e.g. the foreigner who needs English to be spoken slowly, crowds that need to be repositioned because of line congestion.

Arlington, VA! My car was vandalized, so 3 cops came by and wrote up a police report for me. One of them was an aux police officer, and I had a chance to chat with him about it. I like how they maintain professionalism yet don't get too chummy with you. (Who knows, I could end up getting caught with 10 lbs. of pot later that day and that could compromise the cops' ability to do their job. i.e. bust me)

Some cities have civilian police academies, where volunteers receive some basic familiarization and do ride-alongs. I've heard it can be a real eye opener for some. (I don't know how OCSO works theirs, but it gives you a basic idea)

http://www.ocso.com/Community/Commun...0/Default.aspx

Sure, how do I do that?

It's very easy, actually. When you quote someone, you'll see two tags enclosed in brackets at the beginning and end of your quote. They'll say "[ QUOTE = username ; some-long-string-of-numbers ]" at the beginning and "[ / QUOTE ]" at the end (in both cases, without any quotation marks or spaces in them - I put them there to post that info without the board system thinking I was actually quoting someone). I would copy the initial string, the one with the username and post-identifier numbers, and paste that at the beginning of every separate idea you want to talk about, and type in the quote closer (the second string, with the backslash in it) at the end of each of those ideas. That way, each of the sentences or paragraphs you're quoting will be separated, and your replies will be easier to distinguish, because they'll be outside the quote box.

+1 googleplex

...and the blessed holy wafers in it's mouth. And make sure it's buried at a crossroads.

(Well, if we're going full on the vampire theme)