Why are TSA policies not uniform across the country?

Sometimes you have to speak up and they let you Precheck through a normal line.

Funny (to me) story.

At JFK last month heading to Croatia a gentleman at security points me to the Precheck line saying it's over there.

My wife and I walk up to the TSA agent at the podium.

"Do you have a family?"

"Just us two here"

"This is the family line"

"The gentleman up there said this was Precheck"

"We don't have Precheck"

(There's a huge Precheck sign over her shoulder)

"Uhhh"

She lets us through.

To Belt TSA agent five feet past podium:

"Hey we're Precheck"

"PRECHECK HERE!" He announces to the others as we go through

quote:

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I was at LGA and they made everyone in precheck take their laptop out despite the rule of not having to do that. The TSA guy acted like we were the idiots for not doing it and us supposed to know we'd get in trouble for it if we didn't do that

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Ya, I've had this happen a few times. Same reaction from TSA too like I'm a rookie. No a-hole I pack to the rules in place the other 99.9% of the time.

It's like when someone tries to impose the clear baggy requirement years after it was essentially not enforced anymore. "I'm the a-hole?"

Been a long time since I encountered that though it used to nab me on flights back to the US.

I don’t know but it bothers me a lot. Wish it made sense.

What’s with the no shoe removal too? Flew one and they told me to keep my shoes on while most remove. Yes some are pull electronics and place in separate bin, and others are just keep it in the bag.

Maybe some differences in equipment? No idea. And yes they are definitely not polite about it when you do the normal routine that defers from their SOP.

Happened at LGA in the 80’s a couple of times when crime was bad. I’m assuming they’ve had some thieves stealing people’s luggage recently and are trying to prevent it from happening. No doubt it was a shite show.

I used to go down the river to a refinery everyday, every time a new security guard was on duty, which was every week, it was a total cf.

Security=HR=IT=Execs.

It’s where they put the dummies so they don’t blow up shite.

It's because it's all security theater. Some workers try to uphold the charade, some don't care, some are on a power trip and think they are saving the world, some have zero idea what they are doing and act stern to cover up their fear of being found out. I have found the best practice is to say as little as possible and not argue with them. No matter how wrong they are or stupid they are being, you can't explain it to them.

I used to travel with a Pelican case of "special items" and I printed the TSA regulations regarding those items from their website and laminated the regs to the interior of the case lid with highlighter on the relevant sections. So when they opened the case their very own Regs were staring them in the face in big font and highlighter. The workers would stand there, read the Regs and then disregard them and tell me to repackage or remove items from the case. It was maddening but I would just do it.

I went through MSY and CHS over the last two weeks, their procedures were vastly different.

Not going to specifically say what was different as I don't want a visit tonight.

Last time I flew, they pulled me to the side and went through my hair like a monkey bc I forgot I had my sunglasses on my head.

Meanwhile Ahmed in a gown waltzes right through.