- It’s the latest in the trend of technological ‘shadow work’ that people used to do
- The US Transportation Security Administration is spending billions on the effort
- Biometric tech at Heathrow requires customers to scan their faces at the airport
Next time you fly, you may be required to screen yourself at the security checkpoint.
The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is testing out a ‘self-service screening option,’ much like the ones at supermarkets or fast food restaurants.
Rather than handing their boarding pass and identification to a human, travelers will instead scan their own documents and be responsible for inspecting their bags for banned items.
The pilot program is scheduled to begin in January at Harry Reid Airport in Las Vegas, according to a report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate.
As the program is rolled out, there will be a ‘massive learning curve’ while travelers learn how to use the new technologies, according to one expert.
For example: Nowadays if a passenger leaves something in their pocket when they go through the body scanner, a TSA officer will direct them out of the machine and pat them down to make sure it is nothing dangerous.
But under some of the new proposed systems, the machine would simply not let a traveler pass through.
There may be an officer who can alleviate this confusion, but there may not be – much like when something goes wrong with a self-checkout kiosk at the supermarket.
The goal of the system is to make the travel process more efficient and free up officers to perform other duties, according to TSA materials on the so-called Screening at Speed Program.
With more and more people flying all the time, the agency is trying to screen people more quickly without increasing the number of TSA officers (TSOs).
‘Travelers will use passenger and carry-on screening systems at individual consoles or screening lanes themselves, reducing the number of pat downs and bag inspections TSOs need to perform and freeing their time to be reallocated to the busier aspects of screening operations,’ said Screening at Speed Program manager John Fortune in a report on the project.
With the new process, the screening area will contain far more scanners than it currently does.
Travelers will enter the area, place their own carry-on bag into a scanner, and follow computerized instructions on scanning their body.
It is not clear how much self-screening would actually speed up the security process, nor whether this change could lead to lax security.
DailyMail.com has reached out to TSA with questions about both of these areas, and we will update the article if the agency responds.
After the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001, airport security in the US ramped up dramatically, as federal authorities sought to prevent future such attacks.
This effort has included both increased use of federal officers and private companies that developed the body scanning tech that became standard across the country.
Screening at Speed is funding multiple different companies that will develop the screening technologies.
The program has also allocated funding to multiple companies whose videos will instruct passengers on how to adjust their behavior to pass the screening checkpoint.
Over just the past few years, advanced airport security technology has cost taxpayers over $2 billion.
In 2021, the TSA awarded $198 million in government contractors to provide airports with x-ray security scanners. The following year, the agency awarded $781.2 million for more scanners.
And in April of this year the TSA announced it had awarded $1.3 billion for over 1,000 new scanners.
Beyond the financial cost to consumers, experts predict that it will create new hardships for travelers.
‘There’s going to be a massive learning curve with this, except it’s not just going to be a learning curve with the screener personnel,’ Jeffrey C. Price, professor of aviation and aerospace at Metropolitan State University of Denver, told The Washington Post.
‘It’s going to be a learning curve with all the passengers.’
Already, self-service boarding gates at airport terminals are creating boarding delays at New York’s JFK Airport. And all travelers are required to do at these is scan their ticket.
The Scanning at Speed Program is part of a phenomenon that economists have named ‘shadow work.’
Shadow work includes ‘work that companies have been able to turn over to their own customers, via technology’ – self-checkout, for instance.
Some forms of shadow work replaced paid labor so long ago that many people may forget that it was once someone’s job.
Grocery clerks once filled orders, before shoppers had to wander the store to find products. And gas station attendants once filled up your car for you.
Experts predict that more shadow work will result in fewer jobs for people.
Plus, anyone who has experience with self-checkout systems may be taken aback at the idea that the TSA is fobbing off the work of airport security onto flustered and confused travelers.
With financial and human issues at hand, the rollout of the program will be small at first.
Just a few lanes at Las Vegas’s Harry Reid Airport will debut the technology in January, and only for travelers who have completed the TSA Precheck process that involves a security background check.
‘Like self-ordering kiosks at fast food and sit-down restaurants, self-service screening allows passengers in the Trusted Traveler Program to complete the security screening process on their own,’ Fortune said in the report.
Naturally, TSOs will be on hand to assist with technical issues.
