The useless arrow app used by Dulles airport security

[Grumman]

@TBG

Why’s the guy even needed? If one line gets too much longer than the other, people will go to the shorter one all on their own. Probably the union insisted another guy get hired, but they didn’t have anything for him to do, so they made up this silly line director job.

You say this, but he’s probably the least worthless TSA agent in the entire airport.

[Ethilrist]

I just don’t get performance art sometimes.

[weef]

My Googling skills must be better today because I found an almost similar thing going on at the Denver airport:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/checkpoints-borders-policy-debate/1516258-something-new.html

From that link:

Anyways, at the entrance of both main checkpoints there is a TSA worker with an iPad looking device. As a passenger approaches, the worker instructs them to touch the screen. The screen then shows an arrow. Get a left arrow and you are directed to the regular screening line or get a right arrow and you join the TSA Pre-check line. If a family approached the line, only one person had to touch the screen. The arrow selection seemed to be fairly random but I didn’t count the arrows vs passengers.

So back in 2013 at this one airport the iPad acted as a randomizer and the passengers actually touched the iPad to determine if they went to the full check or the pre-TSA check. At Dulles this arrow didn’t point to the pre-TSA vs. full check, we were already past that point, so it must have been a way to randomly distribute people between the two lines.

[Count_Blucher]

@I_Love_Me_Vol.I

Ahh… but you see they’ve upgraded to Arrow 2.0 nowadays.

…and now it can tell them if you’re coming or going…

[Alley_Dweller]

@Terminus_Est

I once went through a security line where the guy did just that - held up a piece of paper with a hand-drawn arrow on it. What’s odd is that there were only three of us in line and he just as well could have told us where to go.

Maybe it’s an ADA-required accommodation for the hearing impaired?

Or maybe it’s in case you are from some non-English speaking country where use of the index finger to point is the equivalent of our use of the middle finger?

[liirogue]

@weef

So back in 2013 at this one airport the iPad acted as a randomizer and the passengers actually touched the iPad to determine if they went to the full check or the pre-TSA check. At Dulles this arrow didn’t point to the pre-TSA vs. full check, we were already past that point, so it must have been a way to randomly distribute people between the two lines.

I’ve been through Denver multiple times in the last two years (including 2014), and every time that guy with the iPad is standing there with the arrow. And I’ve never had to luck to get the pre-check line!

[Ethilrist]

@Alley_Dweller

Maybe it’s an ADA-required accommodation for the hearing impaired?

Or maybe it’s in case you are from some non-English speaking country where use of the index finger to point is the equivalent of our use of the middle finger?

But why use an iPad? Why not just a piece of cardboard with an arrow drawn on it in magic marker?

[Alley_Dweller]

@Ethilrist

But why use an iPad? Why not just a piece of cardboard with an arrow drawn on it in magic marker?

I was replying to the following message (which I quoted in my reply) in which Terminus Est said that they went through a security line in which the guard was holding a piece of paper with a hand-drawn arrow. I have no idea what the advantage of an iPad would be, unless they had gone over-budget on cardboard purchases and had extra cash in the IT budget?

@Terminus_Est

I once went through a security line where the guy did just that - held up a piece of paper with a hand-drawn arrow on it. What’s odd is that there were only three of us in line and he just as well could have told us where to go.

[even_sven]

@Alley_Dweller

I was replying to the following message (which I quoted in my reply) in which Terminus Est said that they went through a security line in which the guard was holding a piece of paper with a hand-drawn arrow. I have no idea what the advantage of an iPad would be, unless they had gone over-budget on cardboard purchases and had extra cash in the IT budget?

Why not? I doubt they purchased it specially for this purpose. It was probably left over from some other effort, and is now being put to good use.

[Alley_Dweller]

A thought just came to mind: Maybe they have some reason to want the guard’s instructions to show up clearly on security camera footage? Maybe to avoid claims that one racial/ethnic group was being funneled to a given line where it was understood they would receive rougher treatment? Or if some passenger refuses to follow orders, they will have evidence for his trial? Or maybe so supervisors can check up to make sure that guards are following orders?

[Greg_Charles]

If people were allowed to choose their own line, wouldn’t they tend to balance themselves out? Was arrow guy doing anything else, like reminding people to take off their shoes, or take their laptop out, etc.?

[Son_of_a_Rich]

App schmapp- he was probably just toggling 2 pictures of arrows.

[ZipperJJ]

What stands out best amongst a sea of hands and bodies and people talking?

A. Someone talking
B. Someone pointing
C. A hand-drawn arrow
D. A bright screen

[Alan_Smithee]

I really don’t get the questions in this thread. I’m starting to think somebody isn’t as smart as I’d thought, and I’m hoping it’s not me.

@Ethilrist

But why use an iPad? Why not just a piece of cardboard with an arrow drawn on it in magic marker?

Maybe, like almost every adult worker I know, he already had an iPad? You think he should instead of using it have scrounged around to find a piece of cardboard and a marker and maybe scissors, if the cardboard wasn’t the right size? And then spent ten minutes hand-drawing an arrow that looks professional rather than like something a homeless person drew to ask for change, and then put in a recurring requisition request for cardboard and markers to replace the sign every few days when it starts to look ragged?

The fact that someone saw an agent at another airport using just such a cardboard sign indicates to me that this wasn’t some massive government program to buy every TSA agent an iPad with the pre-installed EZPoint TSA Arrow App Plus Certified Secure for Non-Classified Federal Employees by the Department of Homeland Security and give them five hours of mandatory New Directional Guidance Technology: Safety and Protocols training, all at taxpayer expense.

The guy (or his boss) had an iPad and thought it might be easier.

But if the OP thought it was wasting money, somebody else probably did, too. So now, to avoid the appearance of waste, it wouldn’t surprise me if actual, real taxpayer dollars end up being spent investigating this alleged boondoggle, and then training agents on following precise procedures and avoiding the appearance of waste, and then even more ensuring that standardized, government-printed cardboard arrow signs are made and distributed to every TSA agent just to ensure that everything is perfectly uniform and no one can complain one particular arrow was too small or too faint or looked too much like an obscure Zoroastrian symbol for the devil.

Sigh.