http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB110247168313594059,00.html
The Wall Street Journal
December 8, 2004
Complaints About
TSA Screenings Skyrocket
By AMY SCHATZ
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
December 8, 2004; Page D4
WASHINGTON -- For months, top Transportation Security Administration
officials have pledged to improve customer service at airport checkpoints.
It doesn't appear to be working.
The number of complaints and comments filed by passengers skyrocketed in
October, according to a recent federal report. Almost 700 passengers
called, wrote or e-mailed about rude or discourteous service -- more in one
month than in the past six months combined.
Complaints and comments rose sharply in almost every category, suggesting
that the agency's customer-service woes are far broader than widely
publicized reports about female passengers complaining about being groped
at security checkpoints.
TRAVELER FEEDBACK More passengers filed comments about screening in October
than the previous three months combined
Comments
October
July to September
Customer treatment
690
359
Screening procedures
385
300
Time to clear security
70
62
Handling personal property
809
1,400
Damage claims on handling of luggage*
438
1,108
Total complaints
2,392
3,229
*At security checkpoints
Source: DOT Air Travel Consumer Report for July-Oct.
The number of "contacts" from the public about inappropriate screeners more
than doubled, to 385 complaints from 150 in September, when new procedures
were put into place that instruct screeners to touch intimate areas of a
passenger's body to ensure no explosives or guns are hidden.
More passengers also complained that their personal property was
mishandled, with 809 complaints in October, compared with 436 in September.
TSA improved in just one area: The number of claims for bags damaged at
checkpoints fell slightly to 438.
TSA is required by Congress to report figures about its customer service,
and those numbers are included in a monthly report about airline on-time
data and passenger complaints released by the Department of Transportation.
A TSA spokeswoman said the agency's figures include complaints, comments
and questions received from the flying public, and don't necessarily
suggest customer service is worsening. The sharp increase shows TSA has
been effective in telling customers how to contact the agency, said
spokeswoman Amy von Walter. "We see this as a positive," she said. "We
encourage comments. We want to hear the good and the bad, so we can refine
our procedures." TSA declined to release a breakdown of the figures that
showed the complaints versus questions or compliments.
Not only are the total numbers up, but so is the rate of complaints per
passenger. TSA received 1.61 comments for each 100,000 passengers about
mishandled property in October, compared with 0.88 the month before. The
rate was even worse for passengers concerned about discourteous TSA
employees: The agency received 1.38 complaints for each 100,000 passengers
about rudeness in October, compared with 0.23 in September and 0.27 in
August.
TSA says it has responded to some complaints by retraining screeners to be
more open about what they are doing and why, particularly during pat-down
searches. So far, TSA has no plans to relax its revised pat-down rules that
went into effect in late September, allowing full-body searches.
TSA is in a bind: Its metal detectors won't catch hidden explosives, but
the agency can't afford to replace them. The expensive "puffer" machines
can detect the whiff of explosives by shooting puffs of air at passengers
as they walk through.
The agency also hasn't gotten past the serious privacy issues surrounding
its other option: new X-ray technology that clearly slows guns or
explosives hidden on a passenger's body, but also produces an image of the
passenger, sans clothing, to screeners. A version of that technology is
being tested on volunteers at London's Heathrow Airport, but it has been
met with mixed customer response.
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R. A. Hettinga