[NAGDU] New TSA screening

[Becky Frankeberger]

Bloomberg article published in today's online version of the "Seattle
Times."

While few have noticed, U.S. airport security workers long had the option of
using five different types of physical pat-downs for the screening line.
Those have been eliminated, replaced instead with one universal approach.
This time, you will notice.

 The new touching - for those selected to have a pat-down - will be more
invasive in what the federal agency describes as a more "comprehensive"
physical screening, according to a Transportation Security Administration
(TSA) spokesman.



 Denver International Airport, for example, notified employees and flight
crews Thursday that the "more rigorous" searches "will be more thorough and
may involve an officer making more intimate contact than before."






 "I would say people who in the past would have gotten a pat-down that
wasn't involved will notice that the [new] pat-down is more involved," TSA
spokesman Bruce Anderson said Friday. The shift from the previous,
risk-based assessment about which pat-down procedure an officer should use
was phased in over the past two weeks after tests at smaller airports, he
said.




 The TSA screens about 2 million people daily at U.S. airports. The agency
doesn't track how many passengers are subject to pat-down searches after
they pass through an imaging scanner. People who decline to use this
screening technology are automatically subject to physical searches.

 While passengers may find the process more intrusive than before, the new
procedure isn't expected to increase overall airport-security delays.
However, "for the person who gets the pat-down, it will slow them down,"
Anderson said.

 The change is partly the result of the agency's study of a 2015 report that
criticized aspects of TSA screening procedures. That audit, by the
Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General, drew headlines because
airport officers had failed to detect handguns and other weapons. Another
change prompted by the report was the TSA decision to end its "managed
inclusion" program by which some everyday travelers were allowed to use
PreCheck lanes to speed things up at peak times.


 Physical screening has long been one of the traveling public's strongest
dislikes related to airport-security protocols. The TSA conducts all
pat-downs with an officer of the same sex, and allows for a passenger to
request a private area for the screening and to have a witness. Likewise,
the traveler can request that the pat-down occur in public view.

 The new policy also applies to airline pilots and flight attendants,
classified as "known crew members," who generally receive less scrutiny at
checkpoints. The TSA conducts random searches of these employees, and
airlines this week had inquired about whether their employees would be
subject to more frequent pat-downs. The number of random searches for
airline crews isn't changing, Anderson said, although airport employees may
face more random checks.

"Sometimes it's random, sometimes they're consistent based on the door you
enter," he said of the searches of workers with airport ID badges.
"Sometimes those measures call for a pat-down."




In their notice, Denver airport officials said employees are subject to
search at random locations. "If a pat down is required as part of the
operation, badged employees will be required to comply with a TSA officer's
request to conduct a full body pat down."


In December, a CNN political commentator, Angela Rye, posted an article
online describing her "humiliation" during a TSA agent's search. Rye wrote
in graphic detail about the pat-down of her genitals during a search at the
Detroit Metro Airport before a flight to New York.

 TSA officials didn't immediately address whether the new universal pat-down
protocol will mandate touching of passenger genitals.


 Becky Frankeberger
 Butterfly Knitting
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 becky at butterflyKnitting.com

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