Airports can be stressful, and lots of rule changes don’t help

When I was starting out as a young lad in An Garda Síochána, I got a great piece of advice from an old hand.

He told me to be aware of how you engage with people while on duty. He said once you put on the uniform, you become a figure of authority with a certain amount of control, and you should always treat people as you would like your parents to be treated.

He was spot on, and it’s advice that I passed on to many young members of the force in my time. After all, 99% of people we deal with are fine, decent, law-abiding citizens.

Now that I’m retired, I often find myself on the other side of authority and I sometimes come across characters who could do with the advice I got, but it’s no longer my place to hand it out.

Going through airport security in most airports is a bit of a chore at the best of times. The whole process can be confusing due to changing rules in the various airports.

I travel quite a bit. I’ve taken 14 flights in the last eight months alone and there’s another four coming before the end of the year.

So, at this stage, you would imagine I could go through airport security blindfolded - but that’s not the case. Each time is a new experience because the rules are constantly changing.

These days, I wait until I hear the security officers shouting their instructions before I do anything. Shoes on or off? Liquids allowed, yes or no? Electronic devices in or out of the bag?

I arrived in one airport earlier in the year and I was in a bit of a rush. I had the laptop and Kindle out of the bag quickly and placed in the tray when the female officer told me there was no need.

I replaced them and took out my little plastic bag with toothpaste, etc, and she told me that was OK too.

In the next airport, everything had to come out again and, because I wasn’t prepared properly this time, one of the officers got a bit shirty with me. He was barking instructions, and I suggested to him that things would probably run a lot smoother if they all had the same rules.

He wasn’t interested in having a conversation about it.

Another guy got stroppy with me because I had a tissue in my pocket. I had emptied my pockets of loose change, passport, etc, and went to stand in the body scanner. The one where you have to make a star shape, standing with your legs apart and arms out wide like a skydiver while the machine does its thing.

I was berated for having the tissue with such ferocity that I half-expected to be put in handcuffs.

I suppose it’s understandable that some of these people might get a bit narky at times. They deal with large volumes of passengers every day and have to repeat the same instructions over and over again until they’re blue in the face.

Having said that though, they know what they’re getting themselves into when they apply for those positions.

They’re not all little Hitlers though, and when you meet the friendly characters, it makes the experience so much more pleasant and less stressful.

But put a uniform or a hi-vis vest on some people and they turn into near-tyrants.

I was travelling recently and as my wife and I entered the terminal building, there was a hold up. Two people were telling passengers to get into single file and seemed to be irritated that they weren’t complying with their instructions quickly enough.

We weren’t moving because it was difficult to hear them, so nobody was sure what was being said, or what we were expected to do.

They would have achieved a better result if they had taken a moment to address the passengers and explain who they were and what they wanted.

After passing through immigration, there was another short hold up as other customs officers carried out further checks.

As I passed through with my two bottles of duty-free spirits, a young officer stopped me to ask what I had in the duty-free bag. She asked if I was travelling alone and who I was with.

We exchanged a few words, and I just thought she was being a bit overly officious. I commented on her attitude. Things got a little heated and that was my fault as much as hers, I suppose, but the whole exercise just seemed a little over the top to me.

On the other hand, they could have been acting on a tip off and looking for something specific. Or maybe it was a training exercise, and if it was then fair enough, they have to practice somewhere, and practice makes perfect.

But when conducting an exercise like that, it’s important to issue clear instructions to the public so they understand what’s happening and what’s required of them.

Barking at passengers should be left to the sniffer dogs.