Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you are aware of the cacophony of growing outrage about the full body screening and “Touch my Junk” procedures now in place at 43 US airports. Once again, the administration – and in particular the TSA – has coughed up the ball by failing to properly communicate with the flying public. They are now reaping the results of that failure – and thwarting their own objectives.
“Much to do about nothing” was my first reaction to this new procedure. What could the big deal be? Well, last week I flew from Seattle to San Diego – and found out this system leaves much to be desired. The problems come down to communications and training.
Every successful administration knows the public hates surprises. The TSA has done a miserable job explaining and preparing the public for this process. Had they taken a nuanced approach — versus the dictatorial approach they selected — the public would be more inclined to accept and tolerate this latest impingement of privacy. Sending out a press release and doing a 20/20 segment is simply not adequate. They failed.
At the Seattle airport the incompetency continued. I was accosted by a poorly trained and ill mannered TSA agent that, without explanation, randomly selected me and told me to enter their new gizmo. “Empty your pockets. Take off your belt. All your pockets.” Bad scan. I forgot my wallet – so he took it from me and sent it through the luggage scanner. All my credit cards, my IDs, my cash – and I’m now separated from it with hordes of people in between. Finally they get a clean picture of me. My stuff, piled up at the of belt, is a mess. My wallet? It was lying there as well. All the care and respect you would expect from uncaring bureaucrats.
Rude, uncaring, insolent, abrasive, dismissive. Civil service attitudes have arrived at he TSA. The dolt that accosted me? He was already off to randomly select the next victim.
I don’t care one wit that someone gawked at a screen of me minus my clothes (what a horrible job that must be), or that some dude needed to pat down my crotch (yuk). My issues were with the treatment of passengers, the lack of communication, and the complete lack of adequate training. All of this combined to produce a program that the public is now rebelling against.
Now, in addition to this poorly trained civil servant – and presumably his incompetent supervisors – is the larger issue that they did NOTHING to communicate – at an airport level – what we as passengers were in store for, what we could expect, or how we could best adjust our behaviors to make the process smooth.
By the way, as I was leaving, a dangerous looking grandmother was heading into the machine. I felt much safer knowing her and her underwear were free of pyrotechnic devices.
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I’m sitting in San Francisco International Airport waiting for my flight. It’s 9/11/08. Seven years ago today the world was going mad. Today the air is thick with 9/11 tributes, which I find completely fitting and proper. Those touched personally of course have a special kinship with the event that the rest of us have been spared. I was home in San Diego when it happened. I was up early and saw plane number two hit in real time. It was like a surreal nightmare which one could not fully comprehend – or awaken from. No one I knew personally was touched, but like all Americans, I was forever changed.