RonDawg:
While I wouldn't necessarily single out TSA as being thieves [...] it is the utter inconsistency of the way they do things that is the most frustrating. Some airports require you to take off your shoes, others don't. Some require you to show ID with your boarding card, others don't.
Aaargh. I find myself once again in the position of explaining (not defending) Thousands Standing Around.
Six airports in a week isn't that unusual for me; I think four in a day is the most I've ever hit, so I get to see the
apparently different processes quite a bit. As a systems designer by profession, it's actually been fairly interesting to reverse-engineer-by-observed-behaviour, and I actually have yet to find an inconsistency.
Before everybody jumps all over that, remember that
difference is not necessarily
inconsistency. In diving, we have different equipment and different procedures for different environments for different situations -- so do they. Once you understand the differences, you can predict the behaviour with absolute certainty.
(This, by the way, is where comparisons with the EU fall apart -- flight frequency, number of airports, etc. are so different that comparison approaches irrationality. (IIRC, there are more commercial air traffic airports in Connecticut than there are in Europe.))
Here's a quick summary of what I believe I've reverse-engineered as it relates to the most glaring apparent inconsistencies.
- Shoes: Shoe removal is optional. Period. However, based on the judgement call of the staff, certain shoe characteristics will lead to secondary screening even if the magnetometer doesn't beep; this leads to some pre-magnetometer staff trying to find every possible way to imply that it's mandatory, because they already know that if you keep them on, you're going to secondary, beep or not.
- ID checks at the gate: this happens if an ID check and the requirement that you have a boarding pass is not in place at all security checkpoints. There are still some airports where an itinerary or e-ticket receipt is sufficient to pass the security checkpoint. Those airports will still require an ID-BP match at the gate.
- Jackets:
The requirement that you remove your jacket before going through x-ray is nothing new.
Actually, this one was formally changed last month. Until then, only "outerwear" had to be removed; suit jackets and sportcoats could be kept. Now, it's all jackets off. On the upside, the same change order said it was now OK to pile things on top of the laptop in the bucket -- it used to be that there couldn't be anything on top of the laptop, meaning many of us had to use two or even three buckets to get through.
- Showing BP: If the airport does not have a separate line and magnetometer for the pre-selectees, you will have to show your BP to the magnetometer monitor so they know whether you're a selectee or not. This is an interesting one, because there are some airports where there are multiple lines, and the selectees are directed to one in particular, but the non-selectees also use that line. In that situation, non-selectees in the other lines do not need to show their BP, but everyone in that line must. (Hint: avoid that line.)
I have no more access to TSA procedures than anybody else, but I see enough of them that I've reverse-engineered to reach the conclusions above, and as miserable as my experience often is and as useless as I think the TSA generally is, from a system design point of view it's actually fairly clean for accomodating all the different situations they have to encompass.