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Removing shoes before flights could end soon, says Napolitano

WASHINGTON — Air travelers may soon see the day when they no longer have to remove their shoes while going through security lines at the nation’s airports, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday.

“We are moving towards an intelligence and risk-based approach to how we screen,” Napolitano said a Politico breakfast in Washington, D.C., Tuesday morning. “I think one of the first things you will see over time is the ability to keep your shoes on.”

However, Napolitano warned it would still be a while before passengers would be able to bring liquids onto planes because the technology that enables airport screeners to distinguish harmless liquids from explosives is still lacking.

“In terms of what we see coming in the months and years ahead, it will probably be easier and it looks like it will be to deal with the shoe issues before we can remove the restriction on liquids,” Napolitano said.

The US government began requiring passengers at US airports to remove their shoes as they went through security checkpoints after British-born Richard Reid — known as the “shoe-bomber” — unsuccessfully tried to detonate explosives that he had hidden in his shoes on a flight from Paris to Miami in December, 2001.