[Infowarrior] - Shoe scanner kicks off on wrong foot

[Richard Forno]

Shoe scanner kicks off on wrong foot
Posted 1/16/2007 11:58 AM ET     E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints &
Permissions 
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2007-01-16-shoe-scanner_x.htm?csp=34

By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
ORLANDO ‹ A new era in aviation security began this morning when hundreds of
select travelers at Orlando International Airport were screened by machines
designed to let passengers keep their shoes on through airport checkpoints.

But the machines didn't always work as travelers expected.

Many people who spent a minute or so standing on a brand-new ShoeScanner
before getting to a checkpoint had to remove their shoes anyway and put them
through checkpoint X-rays because the ShoeScanner found metal in their
footwear. ShoeScanners, which are planned for four other airports in coming
weeks, can detect only explosives.

"It's a waste of time," Tracey Grenkoski of Orlando said after spending more
than a minute on a ShoeScanner only to be told she had to remove her
high-heeled shoes at the checkpoint. "What's the point of me standing there
if I still have to take my shoes off?"

Grenkoski had plenty of company. Of 50 travelers who used the ShoeScanner in
a one-hour period this morning in Orlando, 28 had to remove their shoes.

ShoeScanners were intended to boost the fledgling Registered Traveler
program, which promises a fast trip through airport security for people who
voluntarily enroll by paying about $100 a year and passing a background
check. The program, which has operated only in Orlando, will expand soon to
Terminal 7 at New York's Kennedy International and in coming weeks to
airports in Indianapolis, San Jose and Cincinnati.

Verified Identity Pass, a Manhattan company that manages Registered Traveler
programs for airports, presented the ShoeScanner last year to the
Transportation Security Administration for approval. General Electric's GE
Security, which makes the $200,000 machine, hoped it would be approved to
screen shoes for both explosives and metal weapons.

But the TSA approved the ShoeScanner only for explosives because it had no
way of measuring the machine's ability to find metal weapons in shoes, said
GE Security product manager Daniel Mahlum. The company is working with the
TSA to get the ShoeScanner approved for detecting metal weapons, Mahlum
said.

Some Orlando travelers didn't mind having to remove their shoes after they'd
been screened for explosives. "It doesn't make much [time] difference," Bob
Halcrow said this morning, noting that even with a one-minute shoe scan,
there was no line at Orlando's Registered Traveler lane while other security
checkpoints had a 20-minute backup.