TSA: Unlock your baggage
New screening policy requires unlocked luggage
JACKSONVILLE, Florida (CNN) --As part of its new bag screening policy, the Transportation Security Administration is asking airline passengers not to lock their luggage.
As bags move through the process, permanent locks will be replaced by tamper-evident temporary plastic tags in order to expedite the new screening policy, Adm. James M. Loy, undersecretary for transportation said.
Loy announced the TSA's new policies Thursday morning from Jacksonville International Airport (JIA), at which a pilot program of the new policy has been in place.
JIA is the first U.S. airport with 100 percent in-line screening of checked bags using explosives detection systems.
The policy, which begins December 31, requires checked luggage to go through large bomb-detection machines.
If the alarm is triggered, the bags will require a hand search, without the owner present, which has raised concerns about privacy and theft.
Screening personnel are to place a card in the baggage indicating that a search was performed, and attach a second, different-colored plastic tag when done.
Congress has mandated December 31 as the date by which explosives screening must be conducted on all checked baggage at all 429 commercial U.S. airports.
Relaxed passenger searches
Prior to Thursday's announcement, the most recent alteration to national air-transit security policy was the TSA's replacement of some safety procedures with newer safety programs aimed at making check-in easier for passengers.
On December 9, the new arrangement established that no passenger screenings would be conducted at boarding gates just before passengers boarded their flights. Instead, two other sets of measures were implemented.
• At some airports, roving screeners select flights and passengers at gate areas on a random basis for additional screening.
• At 17 airports, passengers at check-in counters in the main terminal may be chosen for more thorough screenings. Those additional screenings are conducted at the passenger security checkpoint, where all passengers and carry-on luggage are now examined electronically. At those 17 airports, passengers no longer can get boarding passes at the boarding area.
These measures have been rolled out at major airports in Long Beach, California; Los Angeles, California; Detroit, Michigan; Newark, New Jersey; Miami, Florida; Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota; St. Louis, Missouri; and New York's LaGuardia and Kennedy airports.
The measures are to be in place by next week at airports in Houston, Texas; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Cincinnati, Ohio; Boston, Massachusetts; Memphis, Tennessee; Charlotte, North Carolina; Seattle, Washington; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
"The notion is to strengthen security, reduce hassle," said TSA's Robert Johnson. "Do that by creating a program that is unpredictable to the enemy."
Closer parking
Also on December 9, the TSA lifted a ban on parking within 300 feet of an airport terminal. Those parking restrictions are to go back into effect only if the nation's color-coded threat alert is raised.
The TSA said it eased restrictions because new security measures, including reinforced cockpit doors and the presence of federal air marshals on some flights, make the restrictions unnecessary. Undersecretary of Transportation for Security Adm. James Loy has already gotten rid of some restrictions that he called "stupid rules."
What's more, gone is the ban on carrying coffee cups through airport security and the two security questions all passengers were routinely asked as they checked in -- whether anyone had given them something to carry on the plane and whether their luggage had been in their possession from the time they packed it.
TSA officials also say they are working on improvements in the safety of cargo and ensuring thorough background checks for airport employees.
CNN Correspondent Patty Davis and Miami Bureau Chief John Zarrella contributed to this story.
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