Napolitano: Air travelers will eventually be able to keep their shoes on

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Tuesday that air travelers will eventually be able to keep their shoes on when passing through security checkpoints at airports. At the same time, Napolitano said, restrictions on liquids allowed onboard airplanes could remain in place for some time.

“We are moving towards an intelligence and risk-based approach to how we screen,” Napolitano said at an event hosted by Politico. “I think one of the first things you will see over time is the ability to keep your shoes on. One of the last things you will [see] is the reduction or limitation on liquids.”

Napolitano said the solutions to the "inconveniences" in airport security would come from technology, without detailing what new technology is on the horizon.

“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," she said.

Airport security began having travelers take off their shoes and put them through a scan after Richard Reid, also known as the shoe bomber, tried unsuccessfully to set off explosives hidden in his shoes during a transatlantic flight in December 2001, ABC News reports. ABC also points out that Napolitano's comments come less than a week after Germany declared the new full body scans now being used in U.S. airports too unreliable to use there, in part because of the scanners' "reported inability to distinguish human sweat from potentially deadly chemicals."

At the Politico event, Napolitano also spoke about security preparations being made for the upcoming 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

“Many, many things have already been put in place not because there’s a specific, credible threat but we want Sunday to be a day of commemoration and remembrances and we want it to be safe,” she said. “Not just DHS — a lot of other agencies in the federal government state and local governments are really leaning forward to make sure we’re as safe and secure and we can be.”