Mid-Coast Perspective

The Transportation Security Agency this week is rolling out Full body scanners as the next step in transportation security at Cleveland’s Hopkins International Airport. Hopkins will be the 21st airport in the United States to utilize this technology. Full Body Scanning works by sending and receiving waves at such a high frequency (the millimeter wave), that they pass right through clothing and reflect an image of a person’s body which creates a three-dimensional graphic depiction of the individual. A picture provided by the TSA is provided here.

These graphic images display very clearly every feature of a person’s body, including private parts and external medical devices. For someone with an external colostomy bag, a deformity, or who is just shy, the prospect of someone of someone viewing them in the nude is quite upsetting.

The TSA stands by their decision to implement these scanners. They contend that because the TSA agent monitoring is separated from the individual and because the images are not stored that there are minimal privacy concerns.

Pardon me if I’m not so convinced that a $23,000 per year TSA screener will not use their IPhone to capture the unclothed images of famous people, deformed people or others with unique physical features and distribute them. An employee making $23,000 per year is going to be hard pressed to say no when a Tabloid offers them $500,000 for a picture of George Clooney in his skivvies or the first picture of Ashley Simpson’s pregnant stomach. Personally though, my hang-up is why a federal government employee should be viewing young children naked on a computer monitor. Not really sure how that creepy image keeps me safe.

Additionally, we have some serious constitutionality concerns about this program that’ll we’ll be exploring later.