"TSA Modifies Security Search Guidelines"

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

TSA Modifies Security Search Guidelines
By Sara Kehaulani Goo
The Washington (DC) Post


Airport security screeners this week will be instructed not to touch women
passengers between their breasts as part of the new pat-down procedures, the
Transportation Security Administration said today. 

The agency said it is making a modification to its new searching methods
that began in September after more than 400 passengers -- mostly women --
formally complained that the experience was invasive, humiliating and even
akin to being molested. 
 
Screeners had been instructed to use their hands to touch women in between
and underneath their breasts to inspect for explosives that might be hidden
beneath clothing. Now, the agency said more than 45,000 security screeners
will be directed this week to only pat down the "chest perimeter" of females
and not to touch women between their breasts unless they set off a hand-held
metal detector in the chest area. Female screeners perform the procedure on
female passengers. 

TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield said officials decided to change the procedure
this week to respond to passengers who have complained. Screeners will
continue to conduct routine pat-downs on passengers because the agency
remains concerned that the nation's air system is vulnerable to terrorists
who smuggle explosives onto airplanes by hiding them on their bodies. Such
methods are believed to be the cause of what brought down two Russian
airliners in August. 

"We can still get at the threat with this modified pat-down procedure,"
Hatfield said. 

Already, Hatfield said the TSA has tried to respond to women's concerns
about being patted down. Earlier this month, the agency instructed screeners
to allow passengers to put their arms down after being screened with the
hand-held metal detector so that they would not feel they are assuming a
stance like a criminal. 

About 15 percent of airline passengers, or 2 million a week, are selected
for the pat-down searches if they alarm the walk-through magnatometer, if
they are selected by computer screening system or if a security screener
decides the passenger's clothing or shoes meet a certain "profile" or appear
suspicious. 

The TSA's change comes as the American Civil Liberties Union today said it
will begin collecting information from passengers with complaints about the
pat-downs on its Web site, www.aclu.org, as it considers litigation against
the TSA over what it calls "aggressive" searches. 

The latest modification does not get to the root of the problem, said Barry
Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's technology and liberty program. "The core
issue is, is this justified?" he said and added that such actions are no
longer taken against just a minority of passengers. "Now, we're talking
about middle class American women," Steinhardt said. More than 40
passengers, all of whom are women, have complained already to the ACLU, and
Steinhardt said he expects more will fill out the complaint form. 

Patricia Sturm, of Staten Island, N.Y., is one airline passenger who already
contacted the ACLU after an October incident in which she said a security
screener touched her breasts and crotch area in a way that made her feel
"defiled." 

"I don't want to be groped, I don't want to be fondled, I don't want to be
made to feel like a criminal because I bought an airline ticket," Sturm
said. "How is checking my breasts every week going to keep the nation safe?"


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