High-tech scanner due at Tulsa airport

Screeners get closer look 

 
By D.R. STEWART World Staff Writer
Published: 8/7/2008  2:13 AM
Last Modified: 8/7/2008  3:33 AM

Federal security checkpoints at Tulsa International Airport this fall will receive a technological upgrade. 

Executives at the Transportation Security Administration said this week that Tulsa will be one of 14 airports receiving millimeter-wave technology machines before the end of the year. 

The $170,000 machine will be deployed at Tulsa International’s security checkpoints to augment the metal detectors that passengers must pass through as their carry-on bags are X-rayed. 

If a passenger is selected for secondary screening, he or she may volunteer for millimeter-wave screening or choose a physical pat-down by a TSA officer, TSA officials said. 

“In Phoenix (Sky-Harbor International Airport) during the pilot program last fall, more than 90 percent of passengers opted for millimeter-wave scanning instead of the pat-down,” said TSA spokesman Carrie Harmon. “The advantage of millimeter wave and other passenger imaging technology is that it allows us to detect weapons, explosives and other metal objects under clothing without physical contact.” 

Resembling phone booths, millimeter-wave machines direct radio waves that penetrate the clothing of a passenger standing inside them to reveal concealed weapons, explosives, liquids, metals, ceramics, plastics, 

money, drugs or other contraband. 

The beams of radio frequency energy directed at passengers by millimeter-wave machines are 10,000 times less powerful than a cell phone transmission, eliminating health concerns of competing technologies using harmful electromagnetic radiation, TSA officials said. 

Millimeter-wave technology, also known as whole-body imaging, is controversial among privacy advocates and civil libertarians because the radio frequency energy reflected back from the passenger creates a three-dimensional image of the traveler’s body displayed on a TSA monitor. 

However, TSA executives said the passenger’s face is blurred by millimeter-wave security features. Also, security officers tending the monitors are placed at a distance from the millimeter-wave machines and cannot identify passengers visually, TSA officials said. 

Security officers tending the millimeter-wave monitors communicate with another officer at the checkpoint if an alarm is produced, TSA executives said. 

“The transportation security officer standing next to the millimeter-wave booth never sees the image of the passenger,” TSA’s Harmon said. “The image is viewed by another transportation security officer at a remote location, and the image can’t be stored, transmitted or printed. The image is deleted after it is viewed by the officer. It can never be retrieved again.” 

Besides cutting-edge, fool-proof technology, whole-body imaging is efficient. 

Instead of a time-consuming pat-down by TSA security officers, the millimeter-wave machines scan passengers in seconds — up to 600 people per hour, according to L-3 Communications, the New York-based manufacturer of the machines. 

“The use of whole-body imaging is a significant step forward in checkpoint technology,” TSA Administrator Kip Hawley said last month when TSA introduced the machines at Miami International Airport. “By expanding the use of millimeter wave, we’re providing our officers with another tool to enhance security and protect the public from evolving threats.” 

Harmon and other TSA executives said Tulsa International is receiving millimeter-wave technology because the airport’s security checkpoint configuration can accommodate the machines, while some larger airports were not ready for them. 

“We chose airports based on a number of factors, including selecting airports of different sizes,” Harmon said. 

Millimeter-wave technology is being used at 10 U.S. airports: Miami International, Los Angeles International, New York’s John F. Kennedy International, Baltimore-Washington International, Denver International, Albuquerque International, Ronald Reagan Washington National, Detroit Metropolitan, Dallas-Fort Worth International and Phoenix Sky-Harbor International. 

During the remainder of the year, TSA also will deploy millimeter-wave machines at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, Atlanta Hartsfield International, Boston Logan International, Indianapolis International, New York’s LaGuardia, Tampa-St. Petersburg International, Puerto Rico’s San Juan International, San Francisco International, Buffalo International, Chicago O’Hare International, Raleigh-Durham, Richmond International and Jacksonville International.