TSA Wants "respect"

[Lezam]

WASHINGTON — Screeners at the nation's airport checkpoints are going to start wearing police-style badges — but real officers aren't too happy about it.

Some sworn officers fear airline passengers will mistake screeners for law-enforcement officials with arrest powers.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is starting to equip its 48,000 screeners with 3-inch-by-2-inch, silver-colored, copper and zinc badges that will be worn on new royal-blue police-style shirts.

The attire aims to convey an image of authority to passengers, who have harassed, pushed and in a few instances punched screeners. "Some of our officers aren't respected," TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe said.

Actual airport police, who carry guns and have arrest powers, worry that their own authority will be undercut by screeners who look like police. Every major airport has its own police department or is patrolled by local police

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/ ... dges_N.htm (http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2008-06-15-tsa-badges_N.htm)

[emshighway]

The uniforms are just going in line with other DHS officers both unarmed and armed. Customs, ICE, FAA and other agencies have uniforms with badges.

While I personally cringe at the idea because there is always the possibility they will be abused, the uniform changes aren't all that bad. Blue shirts are better than white shirts especially when screening baggage.

Hell, security guards don't have to wear square badges anymore and I have had to do a double take at some of those characters.

[cancidas]

i'd prefer the current uniforms as opposed to this, and i'd rather a sewn-on badge rather than a metal pin-on any day! the current ones are basically unique to the TSA. i can understand the desire to impress upon the pax an image of authority but don't think that a uniform and a badge are enough. i've only had two confrontations with a screener, both in MRY where the idiots dropped my latops. the people i've met, especially here at LGA and JFK were very professional compared to those california boys.

[Matt Molnar]

Even MTA bus dispatchers have metal badges nowadays so I have no problem with TSA having them.

[Art at ISP]

You can't demand respect you have to earn it. Maybe if TSA were more careful in the selection and training process (in SOME cases), they would not have to make a public cry for respect, which of itself does not help their situation.

I have never had an issue with anyone at TSA--they are just doing their jobs, and they respect travelers who know what they're doing. It's the once a year or once in a lifetime flyer who is ignorant of the rules and then gets mad at the screeners who need to wise up.

[moose135]

Since no one else said it, I will: "Badges, we don't need no stinkin' badges!" :)

[Art at ISP]

I thought of it after I posted Moose.......

[mirrodie]

You can't demand respect you have to earn it. Maybe if TSA were more careful in the selection and training process (in SOME cases), they would not have to make a public cry for respect, which of itself does not help their situation

Exactly.


There you go

[Matt Molnar]

You can't demand respect you have to earn it. Maybe if TSA were more careful in the selection and training process (in SOME cases), they would not have to make a public cry for respect, which of itself does not help their situation.

I have never had an issue with anyone at TSA--they are just doing their jobs, and they respect travelers who know what they're doing. It's the once a year or once in a lifetime flyer who is ignorant of the rules and then gets mad at the screeners who need to wise up.
Regardless of whether or not TSA folks are always the most competent (not all cops are good at their job, nor any other uniformed profession), I think there is value in making them look authoritative. As you point out, most often the cause of security line delays are the travelers, not the agents. If the security staff looks the part, it will help change the attitudes of at least some people who would otherwise act like idiots. They should have had these uniforms from the beginning.

[Lezam]

IMHO these people need more training. Not security training, but people skills training.

[emshighway]

IMHO these people need more training. Not security training, but people skills training.

They have to do three hours of training a week and there are also systems in place that are constantly testing them. I can understand the customer service aspect but when you are trying to get a thousand people through a checkpoint an hour and are asked the same question 900 times while the answer is on a sign five feet away I can also see why they get snotty.

[Lezam]

IMHO these people need more training. Not security training, but people skills training.

They have to do three hours of training a week and there are also systems in place that are constantly testing them. I can understand the customer service aspect but when you are trying to get a thousand people through a checkpoint an hour and are asked the same question 900 times while the answer is on a sign five feet away I can also see why they get snotty.

True, but there has to be a way to get these people to be more courteous. People who work in a call center must push through as many people as they can, yet part of their job is to act like the nicest people in the world. They get paid to do their job in the nicest way possible, yet they get harassed and asked stupid questions as well. Call center agents are also paid minimum wage in most cases. They go through weekly training as well. The same concept should be applied to the tsa, it should just be engraved into these people that they must act nicely to people no matter how pissed off they might feel.