Body Scanners Land At Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is the first airport to use the new new body scanning machine which can see under a passengers clothes. Phoenix began the testing of these new machines on Friday and soon they will be at airports in Los Angeles and New York. The only passengers who go through these things will be those who volunteer, at least, in the beginning.

Transportation Security Administration people want to see if these things are a quicker alternative to the pat- downs which are the usual way to check passengers and they want to see how much of a problem protesters will be.

    For those of you thinking about the view that the people running these things may get of your body parts, rest assured that your image will be intentionally blurred.

   So what do people think of the new tool?

                                                                              

NYTimes

Kenneth Johnson, 64, of Mesa, was the first passenger screened on Friday in Phoenix. He said he had titanium implants in both shoulders and one knee that set off alarms at checkpoint metal detectors.

“I’ve been all over the world; I’ve been strip-searched,” Mr. Johnson, who was traveling to Florida, told an Associated Press reporter. “This was very easy.”

“I think that is a violation of people’s personal rights,” said Kara Neal, 36, a mental health counselor on her way to Philadelphia. She was not asked to undergo the screening, but said she would have refused. “I would rather take a pat-down than go through this,” she said.

The vending-machine-size device, which costs about $110,000, will be used only when passengers are pulled aside for a more thorough check, known as secondary screening, after passing through a metal detector.

 

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