TSA Massages Its Technique

While it might sound more like a massage than an infringement on one’s privacy,  the ACLU has challenged the use of a new “enhanced patdown” technique being tested by TSA agents at Boston’s Logan International Airport that involves a “palms-forward, slide-down” check of passengers’ bodies.

Patdowns previously depended on a back-of-the-hand movement, which the ACLU argues is less invasive. —JCL

The Associated Press:

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts is questioning the propriety of stepped-up security checkpoint procedures at airports in Boston and Las Vegas.

The Boston Herald reports that Transportation Security Administration screeners at Logan International Airport are testing what one official called an “enhanced patdown.” It lets screeners use a palms-forward, slide-down search procedure on passengers’ bodies.

It replaces the old back-of-the-hand patdown for passengers who don’t want to go through full-body scanning machines.

The TSA says the new procedure is also being tested at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas before a national rollout.

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AP / Lisa Poole

A woman goes through a security checkpoint at Logan Airport in Boston.