Merry Christmas! TSA will 'reduce' child pat downs

Transportation Security Agency (TSA) officials have experienced an uproar in recent days over reports that three elderly women were stripsearched at airports, but the TSA announced a series of holiday travel security policies last month — such as a promise to “reduce” child pat-downs — designed in part to allay public irritation at the security officers.

Concern about public opinion drove the TSA to enact “new procedures that reduce, though not eliminate, pat-downs of passengers 12 and under that would otherwise have been conducted,” TSA explained, “to resolve alarms while also ensuring effective security measures.”