LAX will use body imaging scanning

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 such features as breasts and body anomalies.

Officials with the Transportation Security Administration said the agency plans to buy at least 30 more scanning devices this year for use at other airports.

The TSA unveiled its “whole body imaging” machine at the Delta Airlines terminal at LAX on Thursday afternoon. The device, which is part of a pilot program involving major airports, is being tested under actual conditions at a TSA checkpoint for passengers departing on Delta, housed 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 will go through the scanning device, which uses electromagnetic waves to create an image from energy reflected from the human body. The device costs about $150,000.

If passengers don’t want to go through the scanner, they will be subjected to other screening measures, including pat-down searches. Signs posted in the checkpoint area will advise them of this option.

During the process, a person walks into a large portal – about 9 feet high and 6 feet wide – and assumes two different positions for the scan. A three-dimensional image later appears on a computer screen that is checked by a security official in a separate location. The process takes a minute or two.

To protect a person’s privacy, TSA officials said that security officers review the images in a booth about 65 feet away and are unable to see the passenger in question. The faces of those scanned are blurred, and the images cannot be stored, copied or printed, federal officials said.

According to the TSA, about 80% of travelers scanned during recent tests at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix opted for the imaging machine instead of a pat-down search. Melendez said there have been no complaints from passengers since testing began at Sky Harbor late last year.

Civil rights and privacy advocates say the resulting images are detailed depictions of the naked human body – images that should be tightly controlled to prevent them from being posted on the Internet, sold to tabloid publications or misused in other ways.

“It’s a high-tech strip search,” Bibring said. “Blurred images of someone’s face can be undone by computer. The most important issue is no image retention. That is absolutely crucial for such an invasive technology to satisfy privacy concerns. We need to make sure it is implemented in a foolproof manner.”

Bibring also questioned whether the use of such an invasive measure was a good use of the TSA’s resources, considering there is no indication that-pat down searches aren’t effective.

The images in question are not as revealing or detailed as some critics have made them out to be, Melendez said. He said the complaints have been based on old images from a different technology used in Phoenix early last year that produced more detailed pictures.

“First and foremost, we have done a lot of work with industry and other groups to address the issues related to whole-body images,” Melendez said. “We would not have put the technology in place if we could not protect the privacy of passengers.”

TSA officials in Los Angeles said they will study the machine’s effectiveness, as well as privacy considerations, training requirements, safety issues and public perceptions. They added that there is no end date for the pilot project.

In addition to LAX, another millimeter wave machine was rolled out Thursday at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

The machines are already operating at airports in Britain, Spain, Japan, Australia, Mexico, Thailand and the Netherlands. They have also been installed at some courts and correctional facilities in Virginia, Colorado, Pennsylvania, California and Illinois.

dan.weikel@latimes.com