US airport pat-downs are about to get more invasive

While few have noticed, US airport security workers long had the option of using 5 different types of physical pat-downs at the screening line. Now those options have been eliminated and replaced with a single universal approach. This time, you will notice. The new physical touching—for those selected to have a pat-down—will be what the federal agency officially describes as a more “comprehensive” physical screening, according to a TSA spokesman. “I would say people who in the past would have gotten a pat-down that wasn’t involved will notice that the [new] pat-down is more involved,” a TSA spokesman said Friday. The shift from the previous, risk-based assessment on which pat-down procedure an officer should apply was phased in over the past 2 weeks after tests at smaller airports, he said. <br/>