Organizations haven’t exactly warmed up to the idea of front-line employees engaging with constituents in social channels. Despite the fact that front-line employees are trusted more than executives or official spokespersons (according to Edelman’s Trust Barometer), companies simply don’t trust employees enough—and aren’t interested in training them—to avoid the kinds of problems that could arise.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration—part of Homeland Security—doesn’t appear to have the same issues.

A comment by William Reed, a Transportation Security Officer, is among the 57 comments that have been left to a TSA post addressing a leaked document.

The security breach made headlines, prompting a security review. Many of those leaving comments took issue with TSA’s Blogger Bob’s assertion that it was an outdated document that appeared on the agency’s website. “Something still doesn’t pass the sniff test on this one,” one commenter said. Another called it “a lie, or the TSA is breaking the law by issuing false documents for FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests.” And a commenter named Sandra wrote, “Please, Bob, do you expect any person with even half a brain to believe the TSA’s explanation? I’d be willing to bet that deep in your heart, you don’t believe your employer either.”

And so it continued, not surprising given the number of TSA critics who follow the blog and are quick to chastise the agency. But then along comes Reed:

Man that document is older then my current career at TSA. We do video SOP now lol. Obviously it was taken away because some small things in that SOP may have carried over to the newer ones but also because its a smart thing to do. Don’t want passengers thinking that old outdated relic is the new rules for security or anything. So finally, after almost a decade of operation the TSA let one outdated relic of a document escape into the public, yeah like government agencies havn’t had that happen to them before. Seriously not a big deal and if you guys are considering this ammo for TSA flaming I think you should probably reconsider. Our SOP has gained tons of new procedures and tactics that have adapted to confront consant changes to bad guy tactics. The more crafty ideas we block the craftier the bad guys get. 6 revisions?! thats like a whole nother SOP on top of that one in changes.

After that, only a few more comments appear, dealing mostly with (believe it or not) prosthetics.

While I have no certain knowledge that William Reed truly is a TSO, I do know that the TSA moderates comments in order to ensure compliance with its comment policy. The blog even sports a counter that displays the number of comments blocked to date.

So you have to believe those responsible for moderating comments would verify the authenticity of an employee’s contribution.

This is hardly the first example of an employee, acting on his own, coming to his or her employer’s defense. I’ve seen it from employees at Microsoft, Park ‘N Fly, Southwest Airlines and Thomas Nelson Publishers, among others.

The trick to empowering your employees to engage customers—like Reed was empowered to engage the traveling public—is to ensure they know what they can’t say. Well-communicated policies that spell out restrictions are a must. Once front-line employees understand these limitations, they can become one of the most powerful communication forces in your organization.