Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday she could see a future where air travelers do not have to remove their shoes at security checkpoints.
However, the technology to scan shoe-wearing passengers for bombs does not exist yet and may not be available in the near future, Napolitano said.
The policy of removing shoes was put into place after a member of al-Qaida tried to detonate a bomb in his shoe aboard an American Airlines flight in December 2001.
According to the AP, no technology meets government standards to screen shoes for explosives at airports while passengers wear them. Officials have not been able to say for certain that this technology will exist in the future, though they are working to develop it.
“We’d love to have a kind of a screening portal that you just step in and, boom, it’s got everything and you go through and it’s painless and very, very quick,” Napolitano said at an event organized by Politico.
Napolitano said the restrictions on liquids will remain in effect and be one of the last policies phased out.
Click here to watch the full discussion with Napolitano.
