Is the scanning and frisking of aircrew more about being seen to be treating them the same as passengers than anything else?
Passengers passing through metal detectors alongside aircrew would soon get cheesed off watching aircrew walk through security without being checked and this would lead to heated comments being directed at security staff by anyone asked to suffer the indignity of being frisked or having their handbag contents displayed in front of complete strangers.
However, I have not had sufficient explanation for carrying out the same checks when aircrew pass through security separately from the passengers. At my home base, crews climb into their crew bus having first stowed all bags and (when applicable)suitcases, then drive about 500 metres to the security gate where they all clamber out, retrieve their bags and walk (in the rain coz the budget didn't stretch to a roof over the area) into the security building. Here there are always at least 4 security staff (bored out of their tiny minds) who end up having to frisk all the girlies (underwired bras?) and very few of the pilots (the odd hip replacement) who set off the metal detector. After collecting bags, suitcases and mobile phones from the X-ray machine, the crew then goes back out to the vehicle which, in the meantime has moved 25 metres into the 'airlock', where they wait whilst the driver undergoes his 48th security check of his shift. After all this, I can climb into my V-3 Flying Bomb, armed with 10s of tons of fuel deliverable at 500 mph, in which I can lock the flightdeck door and hold my fellow pilot hostage using a crash axe.
Perhaps it's time BALPA made a stand and we could just have thorough ID checks instead?
Rant over ..... "Nurse, is it time for lunch yet!"