This past week, TSA agents in Lubbock, Texas made a set of decisions on how to implement the rules regarding customers who set off screening devices. Clearly a debate can be had about how the front-line TSA agents translated and handled the situation. That is often where organizations care to focus when things go wrong: How the people at the front translated the rules and regulations they have to follow.


As many news outlets have reported like this report from CBS, passenger Mandi Hamlin was given no choice but to painfully remove her nipple rings with a pliers before she could clear security.
Here's the explanation that the TSA put forth on the TSA official website:
March 28, 2008
"TSA has reviewed the circumstances related to the screening of a passenger with body piercings that occurred recently in Lubbock, Texas. It appears that the Transportation Security Officers involved properly followed procedures in that incident. They rightly insisted that the alarm that was raised be resolved. TSA supports the thoroughness of the Officers involved as they were acting to protect the passengers and crews of the flights departing Lubbock that day.
TSA has reviewed the procedures themselves and agrees that they need to be changed. In the future TSA will inform passengers that they have the option to resolve the alarm through a visual inspection of the article in lieu of removing the item in question. TSA acknowledges that our procedures caused difficulty for the passenger involved and regrets the situation in which she found herself. We appreciate her raising awareness on this issue and we are changing the procedures to ensure that this does not happen again."
And then there's this statement from the TSA blog:
3.28.2008
TSA and Piercings
"Your questions and comments on the incident in Lubbock, Texas have not gone unnoticed. Yesterday, as soon as TSA became aware of the situation, people in our Security Operations office looked into it. They interviewed the four Security Officers who at one point or another, screened or spoke to the passenger - two men and two women (if a passenger requests private screening, they must get an officer of the same sex to screen them there). TSA has also been in touch with the passenger's lawyer on several occasions.
The bottom line: the security officers followed the procedures for when someone alarms the metal detector and did nothing wrong. But, after looking at the procedure the officers followed, it was determined that the procedures should be modified. An official statement has been posted on our website here."
What is Sorely Missing In Both of These Statements are Three Things:
1. An Apology
Both of these carefully worded statements go out of their to defend the actions of the TSA agents and the procedures. I could imagine the legal coaching that went into crafting these responses. This statement is as far as they would let themselves go in an apology: TSA acknowledges that our procedures caused difficulty for the passenger involved and regrets the situation in which she found herself. "Regrets the situation in which she found herself?" This feels way too much like the back-handed apologies I got from my brothers when I was growing up. You know, the ones where your mom was glaring and demanding that an apology be delivered...and what came out was something like, "Sorry you're so stupid that I had to hit you!" All customers need to begin to warm up is a simple "we're so sorry about this experience."
2. A Human Touch
This situation involves a woman having to pry a piece of jewelry from her nipple. The TSA has said that the screening process was handled "properly." But where is the "proper" way to maintain a person's dignity while still enforcing the rules? Many reports have said that the male agents were snickering while she was struggling to remove the piercings. I'd ask them, if this was your wife or daughter, would you want them treated this way? And what of a touch of human kindness in these follow-up missives from the TSA? Does empathizing somehow imply guilt?
3. More Than a Vague Promise to Reform
Surely these new policies will have to go through multiple review committees and whatever happens to make changes to the current process. It is great that it was acknowledged that changes need to be made, but we need more than that. By when and by whom?
What do you think about this most recent incident? Did you have an emotional reaction to how Mandi Hamlin was treated? How would you grade the response and the unfolding aftermath of action by the TSA?