Syracuse Hancock International Airport is implementing full-body scanners as part of its security checking system.

The Transportation Security Administration has been in the process of installing the machines and training TSA agents on their usage. Once this is complete, the airport will be using the scanners as its primary means of screening passengers.

TSA had been waiting until a bigger checkpoint was built that could accommodate the expensive devices, Airport Executive Director Christina Callahan said in a Nov. 11 syracuse.com article. Advanced Imaging Technology scanners detect suspicious objects on a person by analyzing the feedback of electromagnetic waves that reverberate off people while they are in the scanner, said Bill Smullen, director of the National Securities Program at Syracuse University.

“They really began putting them in after the ‘underwear bomber’ incident in 2009,” Smullen said, referring to the incident where a man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was caught trying to detonate a plastic explosive while on a plane headed for Detroit on Christmas Day. “They’ve been implementing them regularly at airports across the country since then, and now they’re getting to us.”

However, Smullen said there is a slight trade-off with the machines.

“One thing you have to do, you’re going to have to really take everything out of your pockets and be a little more careful going through security checks, because the machines are so sensitive,” he said. “I remember going through one in 2010, and it even detected a mint in my pocket.”

But Smullen, having gone through the process, considered this a minor inconvenience for the good that it does.

Advocacy groups such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have criticized full-body scanners as violating passengers’ privacy. The TSA has countered this by stating that the AIT scanners generate basic body outlines that merely indicate suspicious objects.

Smullen said the machine does its job in a way that is non-invasive and non-revealing.

Michelle Hernandez, a freshman public relations major who goes through Hancock Airport when flying back and forth between Syracuse and her native Puerto Rico, wasn’t concerned about the scanners.

“I in no way feel uncomfortable when going through a full-body scanner,” said Hernandez. “Going through a metal detector is only a few seconds quicker so it’s not really an extra hassle. If full-body scanners are helping airport security be more efficient and trustworthy then I’m all for them.”

Published on November 20, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Thomas: tjbeckle@syr.edu