Chicago – Full-body scanners will are coming to O’Hare International Airport in 2010, though aviation officials could not say exactly when.

Rosemarie S. Andolino, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Aviation, was asked about the scanners Tuesday during a briefing with reporters on security measures at O’Hare and Midway airports.

She said the department is working with the federal Transportation Security Administration on the scanners, saying they could be installed at O’Hare during the first half of next year. She didn’t know how many machines would be installed. Right now, neither airport uses them.

Debate about the scanners, which are now in use in at least 19 U.S. airports, has heated up since the X-Mas attempt to blow up a jetliner in Detroit. Advocates say the scanners, which reveal the contours of a person’s body with embarrassing clarity, would help prevent such attempts in the future. Critics object to the technology on grounds of personal privacy.

A full-body scanner “could have been helpful in this case, absolutely,” said Evert van Zwol, head of the Dutch Pilots Association. Jay Stanley, public education director for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Technology and Liberty Program, said the machines essentially perform “virtual strip-searches that see through your clothing and reveal the size and shape of your body.”

Passengers enter a narrow passage in the body-scanning machine and stop with legs apart and arms out for a scan that takes 15 to 30 seconds. Contraband shows up clearly on the screen of the operator, who is in an enclosed room and not seen by the passenger, TSA has said.

(Source: ABC 7 Chicago / Daily Herald)