Let me offer a different solution.
Employ the Computer-aided Diagnostic Software CURRENTLY used in medical DIGITAL radiography (digital x-ray machines).
This software looks at a digital X-ray image and is BETTER and faster than humans at reading the films. The computer then flags the image and the region and notifies a human to verify what the computer thinks it found.
This applies to passenger screening in the same way: thousands of people go through very high resolution scanners, machines read the images better than ‘trained’ TSA agents, and only those passengers with telltale image artifacts get abused by humans.
It’s faster, cheaper and more reliable.
Just to clarify, this does NOT require the use of X-rays. The current backscatter machines will work just fine. Just use software to quickly and reliably scan the THOUSANDS of passengers who pose NO risk, and highlight only those who might.
...and cummulative. Radiation exposure is a LIFETIME limit.
And that's precisely why it will never be implemented or even considered.
It’s faster, cheaper and more reliable.
...and I’ll just bet TSA is a union, and if or if not, faster, cheaper, and more reliable ain’t going to fly. No pun intended.