• TSA airport body scanner may be more likely to produce false alarms against certain members of society.
• According to a report published by ProPublica this week, the TSA’s advanced imaging technology (AIT) body scanners are more likely to triggers false alarms for African American passengers.
• More specifically, the report indicates that certain hairstyles common with members of the African American community such as afros, braids, and dreadlocks, are more likely to set off false alarms.
• A GAO report cited by the story also indicates higher false alarm rates for obese passengers.
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The US Transportation Security Administration’s airport scanner may be more likely to produce false alarms against certain members of society. According to a report published by ProPublica this week, the TSA’s advanced imaging technology (AIT) body scanners are more likely to triggers false alarms for African American passengers.

Read more: TSA catches man smuggling a handgun hidden in a DVD player at JFK Airport.

More specifically, the report, by Brenda Medina and Thomas Frank, indicates that certain hairstyles common with members of the African American community such as afros, braids, and dreadlocks, tend to set off false alarms.

Unfortunately, this results in “hair pat downs” that require screeners to run their fingers through passengers’ hair. It’s a procedure the story called invasive and degrading.

TSA officials were not immediately available for comment on the matter.

The story cites a 2014 report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) that indicates the scanners also “had a higher false alarm rate when passengers wore turbans and wigs.”

Furthermore, the GAO report found that it isn’t just headgear and hairstyles that increases the rate of false alarms, a passenger’s body fat content will also affect the rate of false alarms.

“The false alarm rate for passengers with a normal Body Mass Index was less than the false alarm rates for overweight and obese passengers,” The GAO report said.

According to the GAO report, the TSA did not include the rate of false alarms as a key performance requirement when it evaluated which scanning system to deploy. However, the agency did admit in the report that “systems’ current false alarm rate could produce an increase in annual staffing costs in the field.”

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