U.S. Customs Service: Better Targeting of Airline Passengers for Personal Searches Could Produce Better Results.

Abstract

Inspectors select passengers for further examination on the basis of Customs' policies and procedures and their professional judgment and experience. Of those selected for further examination, about 102,000 passengers were subjected to some form of personal search. Of those 102,000 passengers, 95 percent were searched by inspectors for contraband (e.g., illegal drugs) or hidden weapons by patting the passenger's clothed body (commonly referred to as a frisk or patdown); 4 percent were strip-searched; and 1 percent were subjected to an x-ray exam. About 3 percent of the passengers only frisked or patted down had positive results (i.e., contraband was found); 23 percent of the strip- searches were positive; and 31 percent of the x-ray searches were positive.