WASHINGTON — The government is about to invest $3.2 million to make sure you are who you say you are before you board an airplane.
In an era when boarding passes often are printed at home and fraudulent identification cards have gone so high-tech they can elude routine inspection, the Transportation Security Administration has opted to buy equipment that will ensure that both are genuine.
The TSA has been quietly testing scanning devices since July and plans to buy 30 scanner systems from three different vendors for deployment at airports early next year. The airports haven’t been chosen yet, the TSA said, but the scanners will be positioned at the head of the security checkpoint lines.
“It will scan your ID to make sure it’s OK, and then it will scan your boarding pass and compare the information,” said the TSA’s Mike McCarthy.
