US Airport Security to 'Analyze' Travelers' Behavior
Jim Kouri, CPP
May 21, 2006
US airport security officers will monitor travelers' behavior more closely at the country's airports to detect any suspicious activity or behavior on the part of air passengers.
The Transportation Security Administration Director Kip Hawley said that the plan is an expansion of a pilot program that has trained officers to observe passengers' behavior currently at about a dozen airports.
He said it will be expanded after the summer travel rush, but Hawley didn't identify which airports will be included in the expanded program.
The program was inititated at Logan International Airport in Boston -- the departure point for the two hijacked airplanes that were crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11. The Behavioral Analysis Program is also being implemented in Miami among other airports.
George Naccara, the federal security director at Logan, said the TSA program is modeled on behavior detection systems used in Israel and some other countries. The system is completely unobtrusive and relies on officers "reading" a person's body language, eye contact, presence of perspiration and other factors.
Some civil rights groups have complained the program involves racial profiling. The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the Massachusetts Port Authority over its behavior pattern recognition program, although few believe they will win since detectives in the US have been using behavioral analysis in interviews and interrogations for years.
Most of today's police detectives and private investigators have been trained in Behavioral Analysis Interviews. The most popular method was developed by a Chicago Police Department detective, John Reid, and it's known as the Reid Method. After departing from the Chicago police force, Reid started a company specializing in training police investigators, this writer included, on how to recognize deception.
Israeli security agents were the first to implement a behavioral analysis program at El Al Airlines terminals throughout the world.
The Transportation Security Administration Director Kip Hawley said that the plan is an expansion of a pilot program that has trained officers to observe passengers' behavior currently at about a dozen airports.
He said it will be expanded after the summer travel rush, but Hawley didn't identify which airports will be included in the expanded program.
The program was inititated at Logan International Airport in Boston -- the departure point for the two hijacked airplanes that were crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11. The Behavioral Analysis Program is also being implemented in Miami among other airports.
George Naccara, the federal security director at Logan, said the TSA program is modeled on behavior detection systems used in Israel and some other countries. The system is completely unobtrusive and relies on officers "reading" a person's body language, eye contact, presence of perspiration and other factors.
Some civil rights groups have complained the program involves racial profiling. The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the Massachusetts Port Authority over its behavior pattern recognition program, although few believe they will win since detectives in the US have been using behavioral analysis in interviews and interrogations for years.
Most of today's police detectives and private investigators have been trained in Behavioral Analysis Interviews. The most popular method was developed by a Chicago Police Department detective, John Reid, and it's known as the Reid Method. After departing from the Chicago police force, Reid started a company specializing in training police investigators, this writer included, on how to recognize deception.
Israeli security agents were the first to implement a behavioral analysis program at El Al Airlines terminals throughout the world.
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