Secondary screening is a whole process of hand wanding and pat down (if needed). The whole process has to be done, there isn't a "just screeen that area" procedure. If a profiled shoe alarms while you go through the WTMD then you have a second chance to divest the shoes. If they don't alarm then you will be sent to secondary. Do I think this is right? No. Do I think profiling shoes makes sense? Spiff has numerous times explained the amount of explosives that can be put in a shoe can be "inserted" in other places on the body. The best of both worlds would be a WTMD and ETD combined. There is a pilot program trying the system. I hope it is expanded and we can get rid of the shoe profiling. Until then I suggest you bring a pair of "airport safe" shoes and use them while going through the checkpoint.
Originally Posted by GradGirl
Spiff did actually raise one valid question in his rant: why, if a person is shoe profiled but did not set off the metal detector, should they have to be wanded?
If your shoes meet some profile, fine then, search the shoes. But why does that extend to a wanding of the rest of the person's body, after the offending shoes have been scanned? Especially since the wand and frisk puts the passenger at the highest risk of intentional or unintentional physical abuse, it seems like a purely punitive measure.
Last edited by TSAMGR; Jun 28, 2004 at 4:44 pm