Six Things to Know Before Your TSA Pat-Down

Along with passengers and luggage, commercial airlines also carry cargo. Those packages do not always undergo the equivalent of a full-body scan. A 2007 law required airliners to screen 100 percent of the cargo in the holds of planes flying commercial flights landing in the U.S. by this past August. But airliners and the TSA have struggled to meet the deadline, in part because not all other countries have adopted screening programs that meet U.S. standards.

Scanning 100 percent of cargo on every flight, however, makes about as much sense as giving every passenger a hands-on cavity search, says Robert Poole, a transportation-security expert at the Reason Foundation. Poole calls the 100 percent mandate for cargo on commercial flights “a legislative overreaction.” “What we’ve learned over the last decade is that terrorist groups are very versatile,” he says. “They see a prevention measure being implemented and figure out how to route around it.”

Poole recommends risk-based checks for both cargo and people. If a package comes from a suspicious sender, or intelligence agencies have reason to believe it can be dangerous, then security officials should screen it rigorously. If the Department of Homeland Security has good reason to be wary of a passenger (or, alternatively, knows nothing about the person at all), then putting that person through a body scan might be a worthwhile precaution. Otherwise, moderate security checks will suffice, Poole says, and money that might be spent on full-body scanning every person and package is better spent elsewhere.