Logan to use see-through scanners on passengers
Machines using backscatter and millimeter wave technology will scan passengers’ bodies for weapons and contraband — with TSA promising that privacy concerns which greeted the technologies early on have been addressed
Passengers traveling through Logan International Airport later this year may be asked to step into whole-body scanning machines that can see through their clothes and produce images of their bodies, including private parts. The Boston Herald’s Donna Goodison writes that the federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA) hopes to have the machines in place between October and December as another method of detecting weapons, explosives and other security threats, according to George Naccara, the TSA’s security director for the Boston airport. The TSA is currently installing the whole-body scanning machines at ten of the busiest U.S. airports, where it is using them on randomly selected passengers in place of physical pat-downs.
Two types of the machines, using backscatter and millimeter wave technology, currently are in use by the TSA, but Naccara said Logan is likely to receive the latter. Passengers will be asked to step into a glass portal and stand in two different positions. The machines will produce a three-dimensional image of a person’s body by projecting beams of radio frequency energy in the millimeter wave spectrum over the body’s surface at high speeds from two antennas that rotate around it. “It actually will present a complete image beneath the clothes in 15 to 18 seconds per person and will indicate any weapons or objects, whether metal or other materials,” said Naccara, who acknowledged the machines’ use raises privacy issues. The machines have been adjusted to blur facial features to address those concerns. In addition, TSA security workers who monitor the images will be located in a remote location where they can not see the passengers whose body images they are viewing. The machines also are incapable of storing the images, so they’ll be deleted and won’t be printed or transmitted, according to the TSA. “We will probably be using them behind larger checkpoints where we have a substantial number of folks referred to secondary screening,” Naccara said. Meantime, beginning next month, the TSA will start rolling out 100 percent screening procedures for overnight airport workers who now have access to secure areas using security ID cards and biometrics.
