TSA to Introduce Pre-Screening Program

USA Today: The government said Thursday that it would introduce a new airport security screening method this fall aimed at expediting clearance of passengers who submit personal information.

The trial follows a barrage of complaints from fliers, lawmakers and the travel industry that increasingly aggressive screening procedures — pat-downs and body-imaging machines — used by the Transportation Security Administration are offensive.

Passengers who submit background information and can be vetted to be trusted travelers should be given a faster option, they argue. "These improvements will enable our officers to focus their efforts on higher-risk areas," TSA Administrator John Pistole says.

The trial is an extension of Secure Flight, an airline pre-screening program launched by the TSA in 2009 that matches passenger information against No-Fly or other government terror alert lists. Only a select few U.S. citizens will be invited via e-mail to participate in the trial: some elite members of Delta Air Lines' frequent-flier program flying from its hubs in Atlanta and Detroit, and some elite members of American Airlines' frequent-flier program at Dallas/Fort Worth and Miami.

TSA also will invite some members who've been vetted for U.S. Customs' three existing Trusted Traveler programs: Global Entry for international arrivals; Nexus for USA-Canada border crossing; and Sentri for USA-Mexico borders. Selected members of these programs can clear expedited screening only if they're flying the participating airlines at the selected airports. For example, a Global Entry member who flies American can walk through the expedited security lane at Dallas/Fort Worth, but not in Atlanta.

TSA spokesman Nicholas Kimball says "passengers with extensive travel history" are likely to be ones eligible for the trial. Other details:

•Vetted travelers will be issued a bar code on their boarding passes, which will be scanned by agents who check identification. Passengers will then be routed to a dedicated lane at the security checkpoint.

•TSA is still working out details, but Pistole has said participants will likely be able to keep their shoes on and keep their laptops in their bags.

•All passengers in the trial will be subject to random screening.