A new security system for screening passengers made its debut Friday at the Durango-La Plata County Airport.

Advanced imaging technology is supposed to expedite processing at the checkpoint by reducing the need for pat-downs. It’s also intended to protect travelers’ privacy by generating a generic, gender-neutral outline of the body.

On a gray avatar of the passenger, the monitor will highlight any problem areas that might require additional screening. If no problems are detected, an “OK” flashes on the monitor screen and the passenger is free to go to the gate.

The system screens for both metallic and nonmetallic weapons and bombs by bouncing “harmless electromagnetic waves off the body,” said Steve Gilmore, the Transportation Security Administration’s assistant security director for the Western Slope of Colorado.

Because it uses millimeter waves, Gilmore said there is no radiation. Less energy is emitted than a cellphone or a “thousand times less than international limits and guidelines,” Gilmore added.

Older imaging models had been controversial because they produced specific outlines of a traveler’s body. In the new system, everybody gets the same image or avatar. Some call the generic image “Gumby” because of its similarity to the cartoon character, Gilmore said.

After emptying their pockets, passengers step into a glass booth and hold their arms up over their head for the screening. For added peace of mind, travelers who don’t like putting their wallets in the X-ray bins can carry them by hand into the booth.

The new imaging system will be optional because the airport will be keeping the old metal detectors, too.

Ronald Shafer, a tourist from Dallas, said the new system is “much faster, much easier.”

“They’re trying,” he said.

The TSA has been rolling out the new screening systems for the last year and a half. There are about 560 units at 100 airports nationwide. They cost between $100,000 and $130,000 each.

Durango-La Plata County Airport is the first of the nine general aviation airports in western Colorado to get an imaging system, TSA officials said. The airport in Farmington does not have one.

There often are problems placing them into smaller airports because of the size of the machines, which are 5½ feet wide and almost 9 feet tall.

Ron Dent, the Durango-La Plata airport’s director of aviation, said the new technology “eats up more space, but it speeds up the process.”

Because airlines are changing to bigger planes to save money, Dent anticipates the new technology will be handy when passenger loads of 200 people or more leave on the same flight.

But Dent believes more can be done to improve the screening process.

He wants travelers to be able to wear their shoes through the checkpoint and carry bigger bottles of liquid on the plane.

Some passengers Friday seemed resigned to the hassle of checkpoint security.

Despite the improvements, Christina Shafer, 23, from Dallas, said she still could not help feeling “violated.”

Daniel Jarvie, a traveler from Pagosa Springs, said he’s not a “big fan of the TSA and the whole system anyway. I think we already have enough security. It’s just something you have to deal with and get used to. It doesn’t do any good to brood over it.”

jhaug@durangoherald.com