Sounds to me that there could have been other causes. If you were sitting in a metal framed chair, the screener could have misinterpreted the alarm as being your knees as opposed to the metal frame of the chair. If the screener was wearing his security badge on a lanyard hanging loosely from around his neck, the wand could have alarmed off of the metal clips attached to the badge. These are things screeners need to be careful to avoid, of course. My point is that if the wand beeps, it has most certainly detected something made of metal; it's just a matter of the screener correctly identifying the source of the alarm.


The SOP requires that we briefly explain the hand-wand procedure to you, especially the part about having to touch you or pat you down to clear alarms. The minimum acceptable practice is to give a general explanation at the beginning of the hand-wand procedure. For things such as wrist watches, zippered pockets and bracelets, it is not unusual for the screener to automatically check the area without adding any explanation. In my experience, a great majority of passengers don't have a problem with this. However, whenever a screener needs to touch an area that is considered sensitive, it's always good practice to remind the passenger about the need to pat down the area in order to clear the alarm. I always say something before touching a passenger. "Checking the watch." "Checking the rivets on your jeans." etc. Whenever a sensitive area alarms, such as the rivets on jeans rear pockets that reside along the buttocks, I say something along the lines of "Sir, I need to clear the rivets on your back pocket. I'm going to touch you there using the back of my hand."

A lot of this is common sense and discretion. However, I do acknowledge the fact that some checkpoints have pretty tight interpretations of the SOP and others have very loose interpretations. Shouldn't happen, but that's the reality. Frustrating for you the passenger and equally as frustrating for me the screener.

Private screenings are supposed to be the same as public secondary screening, in general. There are some instances when removal of clothes is required, and I hesitate to give an example because of the tendency of some personalities in this forum to respond with hyperbole and rhetoric. But here it goes: Let's say a woman alarms the hand-wand along the breast area due to an underwire bra. The correct method to clear the alarm is to use the back of the hand and pat it along the underwire and also touching the bottom and sides of the breast. Screeners should never touch the front or nipple area of the breast. A majority of women don't have a problem with this being done in the public area. However, some do. The exact same procedure will be done in the private screening area as it's done in the public area. The difference is that we are honoring the passenger's request to have it done outside the public area. Now let's say a woman is wearing a leather jacket but doesn't want to take it off for the hand-wand screening because all she's wearing underneath is a bra and camisol. Many women don't have a problem removing their coats in the public area even when all they're wearing is a bra and camisol. However, for those who don't want to do so in the public area, they can do so in the private screening area. The purpose of having a second screener in the private screening area is to protect both the passenger and screener by witnessing that the procedures were correctly followed and that nothing inappropriate or improper occured. There are other reasons, too. Keep in mind that when we go into a private room alone with someone, there is a potential risk that the person may be concealing a weapon.