Poll: Nearly One Third Of Americans Would Accept ‘TSA Body Cavity Search’ in Order to Fly

A new survey conducted by Harris Interactive has found that almost one third of American adults would accept a “TSA body cavity search” in order to fly, with a majority of Americans also feeling a law that would make disobeying a TSA agent in any public place illegal is reasonable.

American adults were asked the following question as part of the poll;

“Given the recent reports concerning the threat posed by terrorists who plan to implant bombs within their own bodies, how willing, if at all, would you be to undergo a TSA body cavity search in order to fly?”

A total 30% of American adults said they would be “willing” or “somewhat willing” to accept a body cavity search. 57% would be “completely” or “somewhat unwilling” to submit to it and 13% answered “don’t know”.

How reasonable or unreasonable do you feel it is that travelers should be made by law to obey every command given by a TSA agent inside an airport or any other public place given the threat posed by terrorists?

A total 57% of American adults said this was “completely” or “somewhat reasonable”. A minority of 43% said passing a law that would mandate total obedience to a TSA agent was “completely” or “somewhat unreasonable”. Out of that figure, just 16% thought it was “completely unreasonable”.

Surprisingly given their traditional distrust of big government, 60% of Republicans thought it reasonable compared to 64% of Democrats and 46% of Independents.

In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security expressed an interest in having travelers wear electric shock bracelets that would both track travelers through the airport as well as allow airport officials and flight crews to incapacitate potential terrorists. How willing, if at all, would you be to wear such a bracelet in order to fly?

35% of American adults would be “completely” or “somewhat willing” to wear the shock bracelet, compared to 52% who would be “completely” or “somewhat unwilling”. Republicans were more likely to be willing than Democrats, 41% to 34%.

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