Fliers can finish PreCheck process in Glendale, Carson, Signal Hill

Travelers who want to complete their applications for expedited airport security screening may do so beginning Wednesday in Glendale, Carson and Signal Hill, the Transportation Security Administration has announced.

For $85, the TSA is offering travelers a chance to apply for its PreCheck program, which excuses fliers from having to remove their shoes, belt and jacket and allows them to keep their laptop and their liquids in their hand luggage. It does not exempt them from regulations regarding prohibited items.

If applicants are approved -- and if they are not, they do not get their money back -- they will have the privileges for five years. Nine airlines are members of PreCheck, and it’s available in more than 100 airports.

Burbank‘s Bob Hope Airport recently began offering PreCheck. LAX, Ontario, Long Beach and John Wayne/Orange County were already in the program

The three new TSA centers will help applicants, who must appear in person, complete the process, which they can begin online.

Application centers have already opened in Indianapolis and New York. The TSA expects to have more than 300 of the centers by the end of 2014.

Previously, fliers were granted access to faster screening either by their airline (usually reserved for elite fliers) or through Customs and Border Protection’s Global Entry program, which includes, for five years and $100, expedited reentry into this country. PreCheck is also included in that program.

The Global Entry program requires that the applicant have a passport. The TSA program, which doesn’t include expedited reentry to the States, does not.

You must be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. You will not be approved if you’ve been convicted of espionage, treason or murder, among other crimes; the complete list of crimes also includes lesser offenses of which a person has been convicted or pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the last seven years.

Recently some travelers have been selected at random for expedited screening, prompting many who are already members of the program to complain that they are slowing the process. The TSA has said that having additional travelers using PreCheck helps maximize the use of the faster lines.

Even if you have PreCheck, you are not always granted access to the lanes. The unpredictability of the process is part of security, the TSA has said.

Center addresses:

Carson: 460 E. Carson Plaza Drive, Suite 114

Glendale: 603 S. Brand Blvd.

Signal Hill: 2501 E. 28th St., Suite 105

To learn more about the TSA program or to start the application process, you can go online.