TAG Asks City Council to Ban Body Scanners at ABIA

Austin, TX – Just 3 days after the Airport Advisory Commission passed a resolution opposing full body scanners at ABIA, a group of activist called on the Austin City Council to do the same.

Representatives from several different groups including the “Texans for Accountable Government” and the ACLU met with council member aides Friday to express their concern over the scanners.

They are concerned about the radiation from the machines and also the invasion of privacy.

The group is hoping the City Council will recommend to the TSA that the machines not be installed at ABIA.

“A resolution passed by city council members would send a message to policy makers at the state and federal level that we want real, accountable security in Austin that’s going to protect our civil liberties and our lives,” said Morgana Gallaway.

The advanced imaging technology machines are already used at airports around the country to screen passengers for metallic and non-metallic items.
The majority of American travelers prefer the prospect a full-body scan that captures near-naked images of their body to having to undergo a pat-down, a Fox News poll released Friday found.

As the busy Christmas travel season gets underway and Americans head to the airport, 61 percent of those questioned suggested they would opt for the scan, while 18 percent said they would choose the pat-down.

For 14 percent of those questioned, it did not matter either way, the poll revealed.

When the scanning machines were first put to use at airports this summer, 69 percent said they would personally prefer the machine and 16 percent the pat-down, a poll conducted in August found.

Since that time, there have been reports of images from the scanners being shared and mocked by security workers, as well as claims by air travelers that agents are picking people to go through the machine based on looks instead of using a more objective selection process.

Just over half of those questioned (55 percent) said they were very (19 percent) or somewhat confident (36 percent) that the body images the machines capture were being handled appropriately and deleted. But 41 percent were not confident that was happening.

Twice as many voters thought choosing passengers to go through the scanner using behavioral and appearance profiling (54 percent) would be more effective at preventing future terrorist attacks than randomly putting people through the machines (27 percent).

The national telephone poll was conducted for Fox News by Opinion Dynamics Corp. among 900 randomly chosen registered voters from Dec. 14 to Dec. 15. The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for the total sample.