First it's your phones, now it's just simply the way you're acting....does anyone really see this madness ending? Keep on giving the government what they want..they'll take all you have.
By ZEKE MINAYA and MICHAEL HEDGES
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
A controversial method of screening airport passengers by observing their behavior and facial expressions will be coming to Houston, local authorities said Thursday.
Based on a federal program, local security personnel at George Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airports will be trained to look for a telltale sign in, for example, a traveler's scowl or when a passenger fidgets with luggage.
"A facial tic, the quickening of the pulse in the jugular vein, a change of complexion," are some of the kind of discrete indicators airport staff will be looking for, according to Mark Mancuso, the Houston Airport System's deputy director for public safety and technology.
But critics of the behavorial-based method of screening said it can all too easily become another form of profiling and could result in unconstitutional searches and detention of passengers.
"It will lead to more problems and not any more security," said Randall Kallinen, president of the Houston Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The screening method, pioneered in Israeli airports, is based on a federal program that may already be in place in Houston. The Transportation Security Administration, part of the Department of Homeland Security and the agency responsible for the screeners at airport security checkpoints, began experimenting with behavioral detection teams in December in about 12 airports.
Andrea McCauley, a TSA spokeswoman based in Dallas, declined to say whether either of the major airports in Houston was part of the program, called Screening Passengers by Observation Technique, or SPOT.
"We can't comment on specifics about the program," she said. "The program was developed to detect people who are a danger. We want to keep an element of unpredictably and randomness to where people may be detected."
But a federal official familiar with the program confirmed that at least one Houston airport was part of it.
In the places where it is being used, the program has resulted in 95 arrests, McCauley said.
Arrests were not for terrorism, but for drug smuggling, false immigration documents and other crimes.TSA officials point to them as proof of the program's value.
"We are able to tell the difference in someone who may be stressed simply because he doesn't like to fly, and someone who is contemplating a terrorist or criminal act," McCauley said. "It goes beyond just identifying facial clues. We are looking for involuntary physical and psychological reactions."
Signs of anxiety, fear
The screeners look for signs of anxiety, fear or deception, as revealed in facial tics and body language most people aren't trained to disguise.
McCauley said those characteristics are universal — and TSA does not focus on people of a certain race or ethnicity.
Mancuso would also not say whether the TSA's program was in place in Houston but he did confirm that members of his staff will be training in the same behavioral detection techniques.
If a passenger has attracted the attention of airport staff because of behavioral signals, security personnel engage the traveler in a casual chat, Mancuso said. The airport staffer would "ask a series of questions" about anything that would allow for further study of the person's reactions, Mancuso said. If further action is deemed necessary, a more formal interrogation follows.
"This is way too subjective and individual screener's prejudices can be used as a basis to stop anyone," said the ACLU's Kallinen.
The method potentially violates unreasonable search and seizure protections as described in the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights, he said.
Lawsuit in Boston
Kallinen also noted that behavorial-detections techniques as practiced by law enforcement officials in Boston led to a lawsuit after King Downing, the National Coordinator of the ACLU's Campaign Against Racial Profiling, was randomly picked from a crowd in Logan Airport by Massachusetts state police.
According to a lawsuit filed on behalf of Downing against the Massachusetts Port Authority, behavioral profiling had been used as the basis for stopping passengers since 2002 when the port authority announced that state police troopers at Logan Airport were being trained by an outside security consultant.
According to court documents, Downing was approached by a state trooper on Oct. 16, 2003, and asked for identification while making a phone call. Downing refused to do so without first knowing why he had been singled out.
The incident escalated until Downing was surrounded by four troopers and told that he was being placed under arrest for failing to produce identification. Downing agreed to produce his driver's license and no charges were filed.
Calls to Downing and his lawyer to find out the current status of the lawsuit were not returned.
"Throughout history, our fears have led us to diminish our civil liberties and our civil rights without gaining any safety," Kallinen said.
