Don’t be surprised to see TSA passenger scanners on your next Amtrak trip or even a future subway excursion.
The new devices, designed to detect travelers with suicide explosive vests, are already being tested in the Los Angeles Metro subways and New York’s Penn Station.
So far, the devices have not caused longer lines, because passengers need only walk past them. But they still are being tested and await bigger rollouts.
Both machines use millimeter wave technology to scan a person for anything blocking normal body emissions, such as heat, explained TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein. One machine shows a red bar, the other shows a black mass on the green image of a person being scanned when an anomaly is detected. Police have their own protocols for when the machine gives them an alert.
The TSA claims neither device uses radiation and is safe to scan people with pacemakers. Unlike the controversial full body scanners that were deployed at airports, this scan doesn’t show any images that would invade privacy, said Farbstein.
Similar devices were used during Super Bowl XLVIII in MetLife Stadium, Pope Francis’ 2015 visit and the presidential inauguration.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on the TSA to test the technology in the New York City subway system, which was hit by a terrorist attack in 2016.
“We’re hoping the equipment will be on the market for agencies to use later this year,” said Farbstein.
It will be up to individual transit agencies to decide whether to purchase the scanners when they are put on the market, she said.
“We’re still in the demonstration phase. The purpose is to get it reliable to point where manufacturers can market it,” Farbstein said, adding it could also be used to detect concealed firearms.
The TSA’s administrator, David Pekoske, has said that airport-like security, in which passengers must line up for personal and carry-on bag screening, was not necessary at rail stations.
The use of the devices enables a rail or transit agency to help safeguard against terrorist threats in the mass transit environment,” the TSA said in a statement. “TSA is supplying two models of the equipment for the purposes of the pilot.”
