Full Body Scanners Under Fire

Although known for decades to airport security personnel, metal detectors do not always display what is needed to be displayed. Measures instituted to limit liquids brought on board have illustrated the fact that long gone are the days of bringing knives and guns on board to hijack aircraft, and further shown that anti-terror measures are, in many cases, based on an educated guess as to a method of attack. Today, the threat is destruction of lives and property, and as the recent attempted attempted attack on a Detroit airliner shows, terrorists are willing to deploy innovative techniques to defeat today's protective measures. With airports now instituting full-body scanners to detect anomalous items on a passenger, these threats have the real potential to be reduced, but not without some controversy.

Whole-body imaging technology is essentially a radio-wave emitter that bounces these waves off of a person's body, revealing everything under clothing. Recent advances in the technology have replaced the actual image of the subject with a representative image of a "human", at least partially removing some privacy concerns. What is also detected are structures and masses under and beneath clothing that would, if made of the right materials and placed strategically, defeat metal detectors and most hand searches. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Detroit Delta terrorist, had the powder chemical for his incendiary device hidden in his underwear, distributed such as to be nearly undetectable. In fact, the material went undetected, only to be discovered after he failed to detonate it on the actual airline.

As if on cue, the ACLU expressed concern, namely regarding the graphic nature of the body images. Although faces are blurred and (most) machines now using a feature that creates a representative image of a person, the group has concerns of image storing and involuntary participation. Recent interviews with passengers have revealed however that they prefer the use of an image scanner, versus a physical pat-down. Image scanning reserved to sequestered security personnel, and essential data on individuals is not stored. New innovations in the technology include only showing a subtle outline of the subject, with concealed items prominently displayed in red.

As of early 2010, the TSA began implementing millimeter wave technology as a primary screening technology next to metal detectors at airports in San Francisco, Miami, Albuquerque, Tulsa, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. Airports in key US cities have used or plan to use MMW tech this year. Other countries have also begun using or evaluating MMW for airport screening, including the United Kingdom. Schipol Airport, where Nigerian Islamic terrorist Abdulmutallab had a connecting flight, will institute the measure full-on within the month. Currently, only 19 airports use MMW or low-level X-ray backscatter machines, and participation remains optional in most cases.