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Tampa Airport Ready To Unveil Denuding Scanners
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Published: August 8, 2008
Updated: 08/08/2008 03:41 pm
TAMPA - New security technology that electronically undresses travelers and shoots a photo image to an officer in another room is set to emit its electromagnetic denuding rays at Tampa International Airport just in time for the holidays.
The machines to be introduced at TIA are similar to what is known as backscatter technology, which uses low-level X-rays to detect hidden nonmetallic weapons and explosives. Both technologies produce photo-quality images of passengers as if they were buck naked.
The technology has drawn civil rights criticism over privacy infringements, but it appears to be moving forward in the face of security threats, according to Transportation Security Administration officials.
Agency spokeswoman Sari Koshetz said the four machines that will be installed at TIA's airsides have yet to arrive. They will be delivered this month. After they are put together and officers are trained, the machines should be scanning passengers well before the end of the year, possibly as early as October.
Koshetz said that 10 airports across the nation have the scanners that are part of a pilot program. If they are successful — and so far they have been — the scanners will be installed at airports everywhere.
Currently, the machines, which cost $170,000 each, are used for "random, continuous primary screening," Koshetz said. That means officers in security lines randomly select passengers for scanning.
She said travelers initially raised concerns about privacy, but, "people understand that we have put in place privacy protections," she said. "And it's quick, simple and safe."
The machines have "many layers of privacy protection," she said.
The scanned image is seen only in a remote office, and the face of the person being scanned is blurred, she said. Officers operating the scanner don't see the image.
"On top of that," Koshetz said, "the image cannot be stored, transmitted or printed, and it's deleted after viewing."
Two scanners were installed in Miami International Airport in July, she said. Tampa is the second airport in the state to get the machines.
Joseph Gutheinz, a college instructor in Houston who teaches about aviation issues, said he is closely monitoring the full-body scanner implementation and has one problem with it.
He said people might be more at ease if female officers monitor female passengers who go through the scanners and male officers monitor the male passengers.
"It's a common sense compromise," said Gutheinz, a retired special agent with the U.S. Civil Aviation Authority, which was the predecessor of the TSA.
He is a security consultant for the Coalition for Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights, which also is watching the new security system closely.
"They are in favor of anything that protects the privacy and dignity of passengers," he said.
Koshetz said there is no need to separate the sexes and that having male and female officers switching in and out of the monitoring rooms every time a passenger of different gender goes through the scanner would not be feasible.
"The officers guiding you into the machine are not going to see the image," she said, "and the person seeing the image is where they can't see you, the passenger."
Plus, she said, "these are highly trained officers with respect for the individual."
The American Civil Liberties Union has objected to the screening of travelers in this manner, saying it amounts to a flagrant invasion of privacy. In a statement to a congressional committee two years ago, ACLU legislative counsel Timothy D. Sparapani said the technology was raising red flags even then.
"The ACLU is concerned that these searches — akin to Superman's X-ray vision — have been conducted without good cause and are based on profiles that are racially discriminatory," he said. "These machines are capable of projecting a high-resolution image of a passenger's naked body.
"Passengers expect privacy underneath their clothing and should not be required to display highly personal details of their bodies," Sparapani said.
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, airport security has evolved into what it is today: having to check every person and every piece of luggage that goes onto an airplane and ensure that travelers move swiftly through security lines so airlines can stay on schedule.
Last year, TSA estimated it had screened more than 700 million passengers nationwide with an average wait of about 13 minutes during peak hours. At Tampa International Airport, 9.5 million passengers were screened with an average peak wait time of about 17 minutes.
Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.
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