Democracy Kicks Bureaucratic Butt
Airport scanners protest is working: IAH simply sending opt outs throughstandard metal detectors
Nov 24, 2010 | 2:02 pm
- With National Opt Out Day working, passengers at IAH report they're simply beingsent through the old metal dectators.
- So much for avoiding this resulting in an automatic frisk.Photo by Marcel Antonisse
With National Opt Out Day underway, many are awaiting news of how protesting travelers might affect airport traffic when opting out of the new Backscatter body scanners.
Some media outlets suggested that everyone who refused the full-body scanners would be directed to a TSA officer, who would have to pat them down — an intrusive process that takes considerably longer than the scanners do.
But reports from passengers going through Houston's IAH say that TSA officials there are simply putting passengers who opt out of the scanners through traditional metal detectors in the interest of efficiency, not subjecting everyone who says no to the scanners to an intense pat-down frisk.