Client Expectations Versus Airport Security Rules

By Prof. Alan (Avi) Kirschenbaum*

Recent statements about making airport security more “passenger friendly” seem to have hit a snag.

As I have pointed out in the past, one of the key components for making airports more secure and friendly is to have the courage to make the conceptual switch from thinking of airports as production facilities to regarding them as service providers. One consequence would be to view passengers not as a mass of units flowing through the airport but as clients who are purchasing goods and want to be satisfied.

What then do we make of three women in their eighties bitterly complaining to the TSA about being taken aside and being asked to prove their innocence as a potential threat to airline security? Security screeners insisted that one remove a back brace for screening, another had her colostomy bag inspected and the third had to verify an insulin pump in her leg.

With each of these “incidents” there comes into play what social scientists call the “Halo Effect,” where hundreds of waiting passengers see the incidents or hear about them and sympathize with these elderly women. This halo is magnified and can grow like a rolling snow ball.

Talk about the negative impact related to the airport’s (or TSA) image and expectations of “friendly service”! But it is much deeper than just image; it reflects the blind obedience to rules and regulations that disregard the wealth of cultural and social diversity that are characteristic of passengers.

The empirical evidence that has accumulated in both our and other case studies repeatedly shows that when security employees are given discretion regarding when to apply rules and when to ignore them, they are empowered and more committed to the security of passengers. This means better security. It also means making judgment calls that will keep passengers satisfied and not indignant.

But the good news is that the culprits (the screening employees) in the incidents cited above will receive refresher training on “how to respectfully and safely screen passengers with disabilities or medical conditions.”

Of course, the question one must ask is: what about the rest of us?

*The writer is the initiator and coordinator of BEMOSA (Behavioral Modeling of Security in Airports).