CPA Executive Director Edward Deleon Guerrero said the body scanner is not at all invasive of one’s privacy as claimed by its critics.
The body scanner for Saipan was first used in Dec. 2010 and is one of the nearly 400 used for the first time nationwide. It was made available ahead of Guam which serves more passengers.
“A lot of people do not understand or are unaware of what it takes to go through that system. Really, your privacy is protected here. You won’t know who was the person who went there [the body scanner]. All you see is an image. Even the operator doesn’t know you. The system is color-coded and it’s faster,” said Deleon Guerrero in an interview.
The Transportation System Administration operates the advanced imaging technology, or AIT, commonly known as the body scanner, to screen passengers going out of the CNMI for metallic and nonmetallic objects that could pose threat to the traveling public such as weapons and explosives that could not be seen by the naked eyes.
After going through the AIT, a full body image is produced and is color coded.
The move is part of the U.S. efforts to fight international terrorism after two commercial planes commandeered by terrorists hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 innocent civilians.
Subjecting one to a body scanner is optional as TSA gives outbound passengers the option to be manually screened through pat-downs.
Deleon Guerrero said TSA’s campaign to educate the public about the importance of the body scanner to protect their interest paid off.
“What TSA did is it tried to educate the people. Most of our travelers now understand that,” he said.
TSA is one of three federal government agencies directly dealing with CPA.
The other two are the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection, which deals with immigration.
Deleon Guerrero said CPA has a congenial relationship with all three federal agencies.
“Our relationship with the federal government is very good. CPA works well with TSA, the FAA and even CBP,” he said.
