After Years of Work and Millions of Dollars, TSA's Stupid Shoe Scanners Still Don't Work

August 24, 2012 at 2:18 PM | by Omri | Comments (0)

In 2008 we told you about the new shoe scanning technology that TSA was testing, at the time only at LAX. We were not blown away. By 2010 we were ready to declare that shoe scanners were—quote unquote—"the stupidest airport security idea ever." By our count, at that point, the idea had been kicking around for at least 5 years.

Fast forward another two years—so now TSA has been working on these things for at least 7 years—and American airport security officials are finally ready to deploy the technology into airports. And by that, we mean that they're totally, wildly, somewhat amazingly not even close. The scanning devices, you see, keep failing.

So goes the report published yesterday in the New York Times. After all this time TSA still can't find a device that works. They've tested four different models and all of them failed to detect the range of explosives they were supposed to.

And while it's true that the NYT declared the 'remove your shoes' requirement to be "by far the leading source of frustration and delays at the airport"—which is straightforwardly false because full-body scanners still exist—the rest of the report sounds about right. Millions of dollars, multiple devices, and the better part of a decade - and not so much. Always trust content from Jaunted.

We suppose it could be worse. TSA could be the Port Authority, who run a $100 million security system at JFK that failed to detect a shivering neon-yellow clad swimmer as he climbed over a fence, crossed two runways, and entered the terminal. But not much worse.

[Photo: redjar / Flickr]

Jaunted

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