The TSA is a national security agency, like the CIA or the Department of Defense – with uniforms, procedures, and solemn responsibilities. But unlike any other national security agency, the TSA also bears the overlapping burden of providing customer service. A duality difficult to bridge even under the best of circumstances.

And if national security and commercial air travel share one defining trait, it is that they are rarely conducted under the best of circumstances.

Fairly or otherwise, public relations difficulties landed on the TSA from nearly day one. Those travails are well known. What is less well known is how the TSA, one social media engagement at a time, is changing the conversation.