If you’ve already purchased your plane tickets for Winter Break, I’m sure you’re looking forward to trudging through the airport with millions of distraught travelers. It may not come as a surprise to hear many of them still complaining about the Transportation Security Administration. This isn’t exactly something new, but it is definitely something to keep an eye out for. But while individuals are being frisked, probed, scanned and every other sense of the phrase ‘pat down,’ TSA personnel are also being examined.

Currently the TSA is one of many headliners of national news because of new protocols and an overall handling of what passengers are saying is a breach of personal privacy. If this particular post-9/11 administration wants to keep operating with complete support from U.S. citizens, it needs to make a few changes, which could start with its handling of travelers and a less terrorist-driven protocol.

Customers do not want to be treated like terrorists. They want to be treated for who they are — people.

Recently TSA has been under a string of attacks because of the way its personnel is treating passengers. Airline customers are complaining that they are being treated with no respect and that security officials are overstepping their boundaries with enhanced pat-downs that could make a Bloomingdale mannequin feel used. After Cathy Bossi, a North Carolina flight attendant, was forced to show her prosthesis, a result of breast cancer, to TSA personnel, many airline officials and regular customers started to believe enough is enough. 

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) was outraged at the latest TSA antics and is now proposing new legislation called the American Traveler Dignity Act. This new bill, which obviously isn’t going to pass, requires TSA officials to have no physical contact with travelers, as well as a discontinued use of X-rays and high-tech scanners, and prevents the government from taking images of a person’s body, even if he or she has clothes on. I don’t know about anyone else, but this bill basically does away with the TSA altogether, thus opening up a range of terrorist entry points. 

John Pistole, chief administrator of TSA, sat down with CNN’s Candy Crowley to respond to the many negative allegations by basically stating that pat-downs will continue because they are a safety procedure that has worked time and time again. He didn’t rule out the possibility of removing any type of scanner system, but he does believe a balance needs to be reached between security and the people.

Before the 1970s, security checks and the idea of a TSA were unheard of, but things have obviously changed. Looking at all of the current information and recently attempted attacks, such as the cargo bombs, it would imbecilic to even think about a bill that removes the TSA or any security entity that maintains travel safety. 

The problem is truly focused on how the TSA handles travelers and what methods are used to ease the traveler through the security process. Things like communication and an overall customer service mentality need to be taken into account when dealing with passengers who are annoyed before they even get their ID checked.  

An excellent example is the Bossi fiasco. She had no idea why she was being checked, and the TSA personnel did not communicate with her as if she was a person. Simply stating ‘you are being checked for these reasons’ and ‘sorry, but this has to be done for safety concerns’ would have made a world of a difference. 

If Pistole meant what he said about reaching a balance, he needs to play around with the mission statement of TSA and add something regarding customer satisfaction. 

John Sumpter is a senior political science major. His column appears every Monday, and he can be reached at jfsumpte@syr.edu.

Published on December 5, 2010 at 12:00 pm