(WXYZ) — When you come into Detroit Metro Airport, check in with your airline, and then head over to security you may notice that TSA has added a new technology making the travel experience a little smoother.
The new CT baggage scanners now allow liquids and laptops to stay in your bag when going through security. The new technology was rolled out just in time for the busy summer travel season.
They've also added facial recognition technology at Metro Airport and at 16 other airports throughout the country so that flyers no longer need to look for a paper or digital boarding pass when flying.
"What this technology does, same machine, it still validates your ID. Still makes sure you're flying out that day, but there's a camera," spokesperson for the TSA Jessica Mayle said. "It takes a real-time photo of you and it compares that photo to your photo on your ID. It's just making sure that you are the person pictured on your ID."
Once the photo is a match, Mayle says the photo is then deleted and not stored. But in a letter, five U.S. Senators say the use of biometric scanners is a risk to civil liberties and privacy rights. So far this new technology is at three checkpoints at the McNamara Terminal. Between one thousand and two thousand travelers use the credential verification technology including David Konop.
"I think it's made it a lot smoother. I think it's probably knocked on average a couple minutes getting through, maybe longer during the real busy times. But the recent add-on with the facial recognition has been great," he said.
And that's what TSA says. It's to save time and get people through the screening process faster.
"At DTW, we never had any wait times that exceeded our standard. We have a 30-minute standard for standard wait time and a 10-minute wait time for pre-check passengers," Mayle said.
But some who experienced the new technology say it only added to their wait time, especially the CT baggage scanner.
"The first time through they were all still learning the system and they had to keep running the bags through again and again it took about 30 minutes," Todd Green said.
And when it comes to other biometric technology such as Clear and Delta Airline's digital identity test, all of these are completely separate and TSA doesn't share data with them and vice versa. But, that could change.
"We really do want those systems to talk to each other and I think we have really good relationships with the airlines and partners as we continue to work on technology opportunities like that," Mayle said.
At the time, it is not clear if the pilot program will be permanent in the future. To learn more about the new technology, click here.
