Photo credit: CBS2
Don’t be surprised to see TSA passenger scanners on your next Amtrak trip or even a future subway excursion.
The new devices, designed to detect travelers with suicide explosive vests, are already being tested in the Los Angeles Metro subways and New York’s Penn Station.
So far, the devices have not caused longer lines, because passengers need only walk past them. But they still are being tested and await bigger rollouts.
Both machines use millimeter wave technology to scan a person for anything blocking normal body emissions, such as heat, explained TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein. One machine shows a red bar, the other shows a black mass on the green image of a person being scanned when an anomaly is detected. Police have their own protocols for when the machine gives them an alert.
The TSA claims neither device uses radiation and is safe to scan
