Division of Fatherland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem introduced Tuesday that vacationers will not be required to take away their sneakers when going thru Transportation Safety Management safety checkpoints in any respect airports around the U.S., finishing the just about two-decade mandate by way of the company.
Noem mentioned the brand new coverage goes into impact in any respect airports around the nation.
Regardless that the apparatus put in at each and every airport would possibly fluctuate, Noem confident that DHS evaluated the apparatus at each and every airport and is “totally assured” that there’s ok safety as people move in the course of the screening procedure with their sneakers on.
“There can be people from time to time that can be requested to take away their sneakers, if we predict there may be further layers of screening this is vital that can nonetheless occur to a person,” Noem mentioned at a information convention at Reagan Nationwide Airport Tuesday afternoon. “However we’re excited with the truth that we’ve the era now that we have got the multi layers of screening in position that we have inbuilt over the hot a number of years, they offer us the facility to permit our vacationers to stay their sneakers on.”

A traveler eliminates his sneakers prior to going thru a safety take a look at level at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, February, 29, 2012. REUTERS/Andrew Burton/Record Picture
Andrew Burton/Reuters
Noem mentioned the company used to be in a position to terminate the coverage because of the “layered safety” in position by way of the TSA. Those layers come with further officials at safety checkpoints, new scanners and era and the not too long ago enforced REAL ID requirement.
“Passengers will nonetheless move thru a couple of layers of screening. They will additionally undergo identification verification. And, actually, TSA has not too long ago skilled some implausible good fortune with enforcing REAL ID as, , REAL ID used to be put into statute over two decades in the past and we not too long ago put that into position.”
The ones touring with no REAL ID is probably not required to take off their sneakers, however people may well be flagged for different causes that would possibly require them to move thru further safety screening.
In spite of the brand new coverage, Noem mentioned that TSA PreCheck nonetheless holds price for vacationers because it lets them bypass further safety screening measures.
“I imagine PreCheck will nonetheless be one thing that many vacationers will need to make the most of, as a result of when they have got TSA PreCheck, they may not need to take off their belt or their coat or take away issues out in their bag that corresponding to laptops or compliant liquids.”

Fatherland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem speaks all the way through a information convention the place she introduced that almost all airline passengers will not have to take away their sneakers at safety checkpoints, July 8, 2025, at Reagan Nationwide Airport in Washington, D.C.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Having a look forward, Noem mentioned the company is operating to streamline the method and over the following six to 9 months they hope to introduce a safety checkpoint pilot program at a number of airports that may permit people to move in the course of the screening procedure with out interacting with an officer, stroll thru machines or take away any gadgets like laptops from their luggage. She additionally added that positive airports these days have circle of relatives lane safety issues which permits households to get in the course of the screening in combination one at a time from others, making it more straightforward for the ones touring with young children and kids.
Following Noem’s announcement, Airways for The united states, an airline business staff which represents the most important schedule carriers within the U.S., launched a commentary supporting the DHS effort.
“We applaud Division of Fatherland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem for her management and imaginative and prescient to reexamine the 20-year-old shoe screening requirement,” mentioned Nicholas E. Calio, president and CEO of the crowd. “This coverage exchange will move a ways in facilitating easy, seamless and protected go back and forth for passengers and is welcome information to the thousands and thousands of people that fly each day.”