Airport security uses talk as tactic
USA TODAY | December 28, 2005
By Thomas Frank
The Transportation Security Administration
plans to train screeners at 40 major airports next year to pick out possible
terrorists by engaging travelers in a casual conversation to detect whether
a person appears nervous or evasive and needs extra scrutiny.
The new security
technique, already in use at some airports, adds a psychological dimension to
screening by trying to find high-risk passengers based on how they act at
checkpoints or boarding gates. (Related story:
Body language can blow suspects' cover)
Passengers who raise
suspicions will undergo extra physical screening and could face police
questioning.
Airports in New York,
Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Detroit and Miami recently began using the
technique.
Some airport and transit
police already look for people acting oddly — such as wearing a heavy coat in
the summer or appearing to be doing surveillance — and question them about
travel plans.
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WHERE BEHAVIOR IS MONITORED
|
Among agencies trained in behavior
detection:
* Airport police in Boston, Dallas/Fort Worth,
Minneapolis-St. Paul
* Transit police and workers in New York City, Washington
* U.S. Park Police in New York City (Statue of Liberty)
* New York police counterterrorism bureau in New York City
* Transportation Security Administration screeners in Boston;
Minneapolis-St. Paul; Warwick, R.I.; Portland and Bangor, Maine
Source: USA TODAY research |
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"I don't want (officers)
just sitting there waiting for a call to come in. I want them observing
people, observing their behavior and engaging them in conversation. They're
looking for people whose activities don't look right," says Alvy Dodson,
public safety director at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Last year,
70% of DFW's 167 airport police were trained in the program.
The American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) says the technique leads to racial profiling and has
sued to stop a behavior-screening program run by the Massachusetts State
Police at Boston's Logan International Airport. That program, the first at a
U.S. airport when it began in 2002, was challenged last year after a black
ACLU official said he was questioned and threatened with arrest if he didn't
show identification.
"If you're going to
allow police to make searches, question people and even make arrests based on
criteria rather than actual evidence of criminality, you're going to have
racial profiling," says Barry Steinhardt, a privacy law specialist at the
ACLU.
Massachusetts State
Police Sgt. Peter DiDomenica calls the program "an antidote to racial
profiling" that focuses on "objective behavioral characteristics." He says the
program has curbed racial profiling "because we've educated people."
Behavior detection is
routine in security-conscious countries such as Israel, where air travelers
routinely face aggressive questioning.
U.S. Customs officers
have long asked arriving travelers questions, often in random order. If a
person gives "stumbling answers," that could indicate the person has
fraudulent travel documents or plans to overstay a visa, says Customs and
Border Protection spokeswoman Kelly Klundt.
The TSA also began using
behavior detection at Logan in 2003 and last year at airports in Warwick,
R.I., and Portland, Maine. Mass transit systems in New York City and
Washington adopted the technique after train bombings in Madrid and London.
Concerns about racial
profiling have meant "there's been a lot of reluctance in TSA to expand this,"
says George Naccara, TSA security director at Logan.
Naccara says he
persuaded TSA chief Kip Hawley to try behavior detection at numerous high-risk
airports. "It's another effective layer of security which is relatively
cheap," Naccara says.
END
Wake up everybody! Why are the churches silent? I keep hearing Christians saying foolish
things like "Satan must run his course," others just calling me a "nut" or
an "embarrassment" to Christianity. What is it going to take to wake
people up, a militarized police state where preachers will be imprisoned for
propagating hate speech, for preaching the Bible against homosexuality and
sin? What will it take? Are you just going to hand over your
firearms to the government, a violation of your 2nd Amendment Bill of
Rights? Already, Anti-hate speech legislation has been passed in Canada and is now before
congress here in America. Folks, freedom isn't free. And by the
way, Democracy is NOT Freedom. You need to
believe some of the things you hear.
