No shoe scanners for Registered Traveler program members

Verified Identity Pass, the largest operator by far of Registered Traveler checkpoints at U.S. airports with its program called Clear, had been promising its members that they would soon have a unique benefit: Special scanners that would preclude the need for travelers to remove their shoes when they go through the security check. But last week, the Transportation Security Administration rejected the technology, which Verified Identity Pass had acquired from General Electric. TSA said that even though GE and Clear had agreed in July to make improvements to the shoe scanners in order to meet the agency’s minimum requirements for explosives detection, the new version still isn’t good enough. A device that Clear had been testing at Orlando Airport “does not meet minimum detection standards, and several additional security measures are required by TSA to mitigate the shortfalls of the shoe scanner feature,” TSA said. The agency added that it “will not authorize the shoe scanner feature for security purposes in any of the airports where it is currently deployed and awaiting use.”