[IP] Don't act "suspicious" -- TSA testing SPOT "observation" program
[ Sounds like a bonanza for racial etc profiling problems djf]
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,708924,00.html?cnn=yes
Saturday, Oct. 02, 2004
TIME exclusive: A new airport security system soon to be tested will
rely on human judgment The most dangerous threat to commercial
aviation is not so much the things bad people may be carrying, but the
bad people themselves. That refrain heard constantly from airline
security experts over the past three years appears to have finally been
heeded by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Aviation
sources tell TIME that the TSA plans to address the problem by
launching its own passenger profiling system. The system known as SPOT
(Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques) relies more on the
human dimension in detecting threats, and is to be tested at two
northeastern airports starting later this month.
"This is a radical change to aviation security," says Sgt. Peter
DiDomenica, the Massachusetts State Police officer who developed the
racially-neutral profiling program in place at Boston's Logan Airport,
on which SPOT is based. "This is a very subtle but very effective
program."
Unlike the TSA's recently announced program to use computer databases
to scan for suspicious individuals whose names occur on passenger
lists, SPOT is instead based squarely on the human element: the ability
of TSA employees to identify suspicious individuals by using the
principles of surveillance and detection. Passengers who flag concerns
by exhibiting unusual or anxious behavior will be pointed out to local
police, who will then conduct face-to-face interviews to determine
whether any threat exists. If such inquiries turn up other issues of
concern, such as travel to countries like Afghanistan, Iraq or Sudan,
for example, police officers will know to pursue the questioning or
alert Federal counter-terrorism agents.
DiDomenica has first-hand experience of the effectiveness of the
system. He was using his own observation techniques — called BASS
(Behavior Assessment Screening System) — last year when he saw man
acting oddly near the checkpoint and stopped him. The suspect passenger
turned out to be an agent from the Department of Homeland Security who
had been trying to test the system by sneaking a prohibited device onto
a plane.
Although the profiling programs are aimed primarily at stopping
terrorists, they have had other benefits. The Massachusetts State
Police have arrested about 20 people for infractions ranging from being
in the country illegally to failing to answer outstanding warrants for
various offenses.
The TSA plans to test SPOT for 60 days before committing to taking it
nationwide, eventually to all of the country's 429 commercial airports.
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