So I arrive at security theater this morning, and as I approach, I notice that all the pornoscopes are in use, so I choose the shortest lane. But alas, the lane to the right of me is NOT using the pornoscope...it is roped off! and suddenly the line there has gotten shorter. SCORE! Or so I thought...I switched lanes (I had just walked up and hadn't started undressing yet or even touched my bag). Go through the WTMD, and the a...agent working the WTMD says, "step aside here", and I say, "Why?" "Just stand right here". Again, I say, "What for?" Wait for it...She says "The machine randomly chose you for a pat-down." The machine chose me? Okay! What the eff. I think she saw me change lanes and picked me. So I get out of using the scanner, but I STILL have to be groped. And funny enough (or NOT), the chosen groper was the same woman that last week gave me the zip-a-dee-do-dah. She had a look of horror on her face when she recognized me. I said, "Yep, me again. They have to pick one of the most frequent travelers in this God-forsaken airport to continually harass. Really catchin' the bad guys!" I made the experience hell for her in every way I could. You all would be proud.

Lesson: Carefully scrutinize the security theater before you enter to determine which lanes are NOT using the pornoscan before you choose a lane. You cannot change lanes.

The WTMD does randomly select people for secondary screening -- or at least, I've been given that excuse in the past as well

I do wonder if that is false information. I've never heard of the WTMD bein able to think for it self, and randomly choose people..

There have been TSA personnel on here, as well as others who have observed the WTMD in action, stating that there is a pseudo-random red light that shows up on the side of the WTMD to indicate a pseudo-random secondary. The light is, supposedly, smaller than the area alarm indicators. I cannot find any of the other posts about it at the moment, but those are my recollections from the times this has come up over the past several months.

It's a well-known fact that absolutely every single modern model of "WTMD"s can "randomly" select a set percentage of persons walking through, either simulating an alarm, or discretely show a light-warning to the person operating it.
You can read this in any product sheet or user's manual for any of the portals.

Now, you have to realize that random isn't random - it's random like your iPod. If it was truly random, you'd risk listening to the same song 1000 times in a row. Which would be unfortunate. So the machine rarely selects several people in a row (but might) and if it does, then no more than a few.

I'm surprised that people think these things haven't evolved enough to include this function, and that there's any discussion about it.

-SB-

I did see signs that said this in MCO when I was there last month.

"The Randomizer"

I was selected Thursday in MCO, only had my hands swabbed, and person before me on Sat in LAS got it as well. The person in LAS was an airport employee and the TSA told her that she needed secondary screening because the randomizer said so. The LAS experience answered my questions about my MCO experience.

I wonder if Donna D'Errico was "selected" by the "randomizer."

The Chertoff "Randomizer" Machine

Makes sense.
For a second I though the TSOs could just do their jobs without a machine telling them how, but them I remembered TSOs can't think for themselves...

To be fair ... it's incredibly difficult for people to make "random" selections. Even ideally, people have subconscious biases that can lead to terribly non-random choices.

Relying on a machine to make random choices gives greater assurances that the choices will actually be random. It also lessens accusations of bias (see the recent thread on Donna D'Errico's "random" selection for enhanced screening).

I've got a number of disagreements with TSA ... but this ain't one of them.

I agree that the TSOs have biases, like everyone else. But true security isn't random, so this is just another act in the theater.

And it is a lot easier to say to the passenger "the machine picked you" than "I picked you because I believe you are acting in a suspicious manner".

Actually, there is a role for randomness in security screening. Whether or not TSA executes that role properly, of course, is another matter.

Of course, what "acting in a suspicious manner" means is completely variable. Flying While [insert race here] is sufficient cause to be "suspicious" in some eyes.

To be fair, it's not apparant to me that this is a "well-known fact" or common believe if people on this forum (and other sites and private conversations, etc.) are asking questions about the "random" selections process. I'm no road warrior (or air-warrior), but I am no neophyte to flying either, and this is the first I've heard of any feature of the WTMD "randomly" indicating selections for further actions for the TSA.

That being said, thank you for posting the information. Knowledge is everything (to me, anyway). And I'd prefer if something were truly random, rather than someone's "hottie alert" selection decision, etc.

I'm sorry, and you're right, of course.

As jkhuggins said, randomness does have a place in security, and it's extremely hard, if not impossible for a human to be random. Therefore, this feature was introduced very early when it comes to WTMDs.

However, it is a well-known feature to those who've operated WTMDs, but I shouldn't have assumed that it's common knowledge.

-SB-