Most Prefer Airport Body Scanner to Pat-Down
Airports across the country, from Washington, D.C. to Seattle, are beginning to install new full-body scanners as part of their security checkpoints. But for privacy reasons, many Americans oppose the scanners which show full-body nude images of the passenger to a screener in another room.
In the wake of the latest terrorist bombing attempt last week, the Department of Homeland Security may soon require full-body pat-downs of all boarding airline passengers if they refuse to go through the full-body scanner. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that, given the choice, 69% of Likely U.S. voters would rather go through the full-body scanner at the airport than be subjected to a full body pat-down. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Twenty-two percent (22%) would opt for the pat-down rather than go through the scanner
In January, 71% of adults favored using full-body scanners in airports.
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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on October 30-31, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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