Some travelers at Los Angeles International Airport will be searched for weapons and explosives using a new scanner that peers through their clothes and creates an image of the person's body, federal officials announced Thursday.
The sophisticated technology, called millimeter wave imaging, may prove to be a more effective way to check travelers for guns, knives, bombs and other dangerous materials than pat-down searches. But it has raised questions by privacy and civil rights advocates, who say the screening process is extraordinarily invasive and amounts to a virtual strip search.
"I don't think people are really aware of just how accurate and detailed the images are of their naked body," said Peter Bibring, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union office in Los Angeles. "We need to make sure there are good safeguards. The temptation is great not to follow procedures when a celebrity or someone well-known is involved."
Millimeter wave pictures are white and dark gray. Though somewhat fuzzy, they are detailed enough to reveal bulges in the body, such as the shape of a breast or muscle. The machine uses radio waves to create an image from energy reflected from the human body.
This results in a 3-D image that essentially shows how the person looks without clothing. It also shows hidden objects such as guns and explosives.
Officials with the federal Transportation Security Administration said that this year the agency planned to buy at least 30 more scanning devices, at about $150,000 each, for use at other airports.
The TSA unveiled its "whole body imaging" machine Thursday at LAX. The device, which is part of a pilot program involving major airports, is being tested at a TSA checkpoint for passengers departing on Delta Airlines in Terminal 5.
"This will allow us to enhance our security at LAX," said Nico Melendez, a TSA spokesman. "Imaging devices are not a brand-new security tool, but they are a brand-new security tool for airports."
Travelers randomly selected for secondary screening have the choice of going through the scanning device or being subjected to other screening measures, including pat-down searches. Signs in the checkpoint area will advise them of the option.
During the process, a person walks into a large portal -- about 9 feet high and 6 feet wide -- and assumes two positions for the scan. Security officers view the images in a booth about 65 feet away and are unable to see the passenger in question. To protect privacy, the faces of those scanned are blurred, and the images cannot be stored, copied or printed, federal officials said.
