Every few weeks, we read about some airport that had to be evacuated because they found out the metal detector was unplugged, etc. I have sent this to the FAA twice, but apparently they are too busy conducting full searches and interviews of 80-year-old Norwegian grandmothers.
Very simply, every metal detector should be furnished with two small boxes. One is designed to trigger the alarm, the other is not to trigger the alarm. Every, say, 10th person through the gate would be followed by first one box, then the next. If there is any problem, then ONLY those 10 people would have to go back through (assuming the test was conducted on all prior passengers). This would ensure that the machine was always up and working and, if not working, provide for minimum inconvenience.
This idea was originally posted by AARONESCOTT on the forbes.com Why Not? forum.
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Although if the problem is the machine just being unplugged (ie. not a technical problem) then there should be easier ways to check that: glancing over at the electrical outlet, for one. If that is just too strenuous an exercise, why isn't there a real obvious indicator on the machine as to whether power is flowing into it or not.