What you can do to change the TSA's full body screening and enhanced pat-down policies

In recent days, the TSA's policy of using advanced screening device along with enhanced pat-downs of passengers to help deter bomb attacks has come under increasing opposition by the flying public, with several organizations and individuals taking actions to force the TSA to alter or eliminate some of these new procedures. There are several ways that an individual can take action, and those are described later in this article.

Public opposed for several reasons
There are several reasons why the traveling public and key parts of the airline industry are opposed to the advanced screening technology and security procedures, including the radiation risks from some of the scanners, potential losses of personal privacy, the techniques used in the pat-down procedures, how people are chosen for the new screening, and because TSA personnel may have backgrounds that make them totally unsuitable for these tasks.

Risks from new screening technologies
The new full-body scanners, currently in use in more than 60 US airports, use either x-rays or millimeter-wavelength radio waves to see if a passenger is concealing explosives, weapons, or other dangerous items. While TSA relies on FDA claims that the amount of radiation exposure is low, and that the machines are safe. However, two major airline pilot organizations have come out against it because of potential health effects from multiple exposures.

Advanced imaging systems are an invasion of privacy
Both the millimeter wave and x-ray advanced imagining systems produce images that can reveal weapons and other other contraband, but it also has the potential to reveal medical conditions and other information that the TSA has no need to know and that most passengers would prefer to keep private for personal, professional, or religious reasons.

Pat-down procedures are intrusive and inappropriate
If someone does not want to use the full body scanner, the TSA has mandated that their security officers use an aggressive pat-down procedure that includes extensive touching of the breast, buttocks, and genital areas of passengers. These new procedures were launched without any opportunity for the public to make comments or suggestions about the procedures. The initial public reaction was so negative that TSA quickly changed their policy in one area--children under the age of 13 will still be subject to a full pat-down search, but one that is modified in ways that the TSA has not yet specified.

While extensive pat-down searches, or even body cavity searches, have been used on passengers for decades, it has usually been under two conditions, that there is evidence that a passenger is suspected of hiding prohibited or dangerous items on their person, and that an appropriate and highly trained law enforcement or customs official was conducting the search. TSA transportation security officers may dress like law enforcement officers, but they lack the training, experience, and authority of police officers. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security recently released report that pointed out serious deficiencies in the training given to TSA security officers.

Use of the screening and pat-downs is excessive
The advanced imaging technology and enhanced pat-downs are designed to find articles hidden under a person's clothes. Rather than being used on persons who have been identified as being high risk based on their behavior or on specific information provided by security or or law enforcement agencies, passengers and airline crew members are being randomly chosen for advanced screening. While the TSA believes that this process is effective at deterring acts of sabotage or terror, for many the intrusive nature of the scanners and pat-downs is not justified for use on someone has has done nothing to arouse suspicion.

TSA screeners may have inadequate background checks
The process by which TSA personnel were screened is another reason that these procedures may be highly inappropriate. As was described in an earlier AirSafeNews.com article, it is possible that the ranks of TSA's screeners may include people convicted of rape and other serious sexually oriented crimes. It is highly unlikely that the average passenger would consent to a very intimate physical search conducted by a convicted sex offender, and at the very least would want the TSA to state for the record whether such people are currently employed in any capacity at TSA.

Actions you can take to change these policies
If you object to the TSA's advanced screening or enhanced pat-down policies or procedures, or feel that you have been victimized in some way because you have been subjected to these techniques and technologies, there are several things that you can do to help change what the TSA is doing:

• Complain to the TSA about what you have seen or experienced at a specific airport
  
  
• Send a general complaint or comment to the TSA
  
  
• Contact the ACLU if you think that you or someone else have been treated by the TSA in a disrespectful, humiliating, or discriminatory way.
  
  
• Send a complaint to AirSafe.com and we will forward it to an appropriate organization.
  
  
• File a report with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an organization that is working to stop to use of full body scanners.
  
  
• Take pictures or videos of enhanced pat-downs. TSA allows anyone to photograph or take videos at security checkpoints, as long as the screening process is not interfered with or slowed down and so long as you don't film or take pictures of the monitors. You can then publish the photos and videos online or share them with the news media.
  
  
• If you are chosen for a pat-down, make sure that others can see you and document what happens.
  
  
• Convince others to share or document their experience.
  

Related Resources
WTOP interview on November 16, 2010 with Dr. Todd Curtis about these new TSA procedures (5:12)
Teri Schultz article on European approaches to security

Why the TSA Can't Eliminate the Threat from Bombs

In the wake of last month's attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines A330, the US government has taken several steps which were intended to reduce the risk of someone else getting on an airplane with a bomb. While steps like these will reduce the risk, it will not eliminate the risk.

How Safe is Safe Enough?
When it comes to bombs on an airplane, the average passenger would consider the situation safe enough if the probability of a bomb on board an airplane were zero, but the reality of the situation is that as long as people have a desire to blow up airplanes full of passengers, steps can be taken to make flying safer by reducing that probability, but as long as there are airliners flying, the probability can't be eliminated.

Risk Management and Airline Security
Risk can be defined as the probability of some undesirable event like a bomb exploding on an airplane. Risk management is the process of reducing risk by either reducing the probability of an event or reducing the severity of the event. The steps taken by the US government are risk management steps that may reduce the likelihood that a bomb will be exploded on an airplane, but none of these steps are 100% effective.

How Airline Security Works
The short story is that there are multiple things that can be done to stop bombings, hijackings, sabotage, and other mayhem out of the skies. Passenger screening at the airport is one of the things that everyone can see, and there is much more that is not so visible, from bomb-sniffing dogs to terrorists watch lists. There are many procedures and systems in place because no one system or procedure can prevent every attempt to bring down an airplane. For an example, you can look at one part of the US government's response to the Christmas day bombing event, placing advanced screening systems in US airports.

Advanced Imaging Units Deployed to US Airports
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would was adding at least 300 advanced imaging units throughout the United States by the end of 2010. This technology produces a full body scan that would show a graphic image of a person's body underneath his or her clothes. Had one of these devices been used to screen the alleged bomber, it would have presumably detected the the explosive device hidden under his clothes.

Sample Image from a Full Body Scan Device

How the Technology Was Used in 2009
While these detection systems may be useful, the way that they have been deployed in the past and the way that they will be deployed in the near future guarantee that not all passengers will be screened using these systems. The Transportation Security Administration provided a detailed overview of how 40 of these units were used in they were deployed in 2009 at 19 US airports. They were used as a primary screening method at only six airports, and as a secondary screening method at the 13 other airports. TSA plans to install hundreds more this year, but not all US airports will have this option available.

Why this Method Can't Be 100% Effective
In addition and plans to deploy at least 300 additional units in 2010. Even if the TSA meets its goal and adds 300 units to the 40 currently in use, not every airport will have them, since the TSA provides screening at about 450 airports. This means that for some airports passengers will have to be screened with systems or methods that don't have the advantages or capabilities of these advanced detection units.

Even if an airport has these devices in available, they may not be used. The TSA emphasized that these technologies were optional, and any passenger that did not want to use them could be screened with another method.

Why a Less than Perfect System Is Acceptable
While some passengers may wonder why TSA would place these advanced devices only in some airports, and would not require that all passengers be screened in this way, keep in mind that this kind of technology is only one kind of protective system, designed to protect airliners against individuals who try to sneak weapons, bombs, and other banned items into the secure area of an airport. Even a partial implementation of these security measures may find some banned items, and may deter some potential terrorists from attempting to bring bombs and guns on board aircraft.

Why Extra Security Is not Enough
The threat from those who want to disrupt the air transportation system is one that constantly evolves. For every system or procedure that is put into place, those who intend to bring harm to the system will take steps to either avoid those measures or find a way to defeat them. While extra measures will not make air travel perfectly safe, they will likely make travel less risky.

Resources
TSA imaging technology background information
Bomb related deaths on US and Canadian airliners since 1949

Poll Question of the Day
The USA Today newspaper and the Gallup polling organization recently released a poll that says 78% of air travelers who have taken at least one trip in the last 12 months approve of US airports' using full body scan imaging on airline passengers. AirSafe.com would like to know how you feel about this technology:

The survey is now closed. The survey asked the following questions:

• Do you approve of full body scans at US airports?
  
  
• Should children be scanned in this way?
  
  
• Have you flown on airliner at least once in the past 12 months?
  
  
• What do you think about the increased security?

The results of the survey are available here.