It just seems sloppy and embarrassing. Saw this in a building today. To gain entry, you had to walk up to a machine — a video camera on a podium with a small screen — and state your name and who you were there to see.
The machine was covered with signage made out of the same red plastic with white letters — there were several signs visible to address various interactions and warnings. I only found out about it because there was some problem with it and the Blogger Status feed I subscribe to had info. Thanks for nothing, Blogger. Yesterday I was selected for secondary screening while going through airport security at SFO.
It started off rather typically, with no explanation from the person who checks ID and boarding passes, only an instruction to follow a certain path. I follow the path I was directed to — a long and narrow corridor between the wall and those straps-on-poles were that I was hip enough to name those by brand!
I was confused, so I turned around only to find a security person was ducking under the straps to join me. He was exceedingly polite, and extremely patient while I did as he requested, provided boarding pass, unloaded my laptop, took off my shoes. Instead of treating me like a presumed criminal, I actually felt a bit of privilege. Partly by singled out, but partly because of a certain experience of access. My bags were put through the X-ray machine ahead of others, with somebody carrying them for me and getting the nod to lay them on the belt as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, I was able to stand out of the line, in a space in the middle where no one else could stand since they had to remain in line. I went through the metal detector myself and was directed to a little holding area. Two different people greeted me there, one of whom smiled nervously the nervous smile of youth and introversion, simply at me with a mouth full of braces. He dealt with my bag, and another did the search.
