[fintstone]

Originally Posted by Eric Coffey

Yup. Some days it's shoes off, laptops out. Some days it's shoes on, but laptops still out. Or, some days it's "Casual Flyday" and you are just waived through without any of the shoe/laptop hassles.
It would seem that it's totally at the discretion of the supervising agent on duty that day. Of course, avoiding those hassles and the long lines of unwashed masses is an option...for a price.

What they are required to do is based on real-time threat warnings. If they do anything different, there are signs posted everywhere. It does not behoove them for you to be confused any more than it does you. Since they have to route all the folks through who showed up way too late, didn’t read the signs, follow the rules, or exhibit any common sense...without increasing waits...they do their best to keep it simple. If it is difficult or slow, blame the guy in front of you who had a glock or a cold steel katana in their carry on.