TSA has been using behavioral detection in the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques program for years, with something like 3,000 officers now at 161 airports. The BOS pilot program is apparently a reaction to criticism from several sources,
notably Rep. John Mica, that TSA rolled out the program without adequately validating it.
Some of the descriptions of the SPOT program in the media, and
even from Rep. Mica himself (emphasis added below), appear to have been somewhat inaccurate, suggesting that behavior detection under SPOT is limited to observation from a distance rather than engaging the passenger with questions:
Mica had urged the development of a behavior detection program, based on the highly successful Israeli model utilized by EL Al Airlines.
"Unfortunately, the TSA’s SPOT Program is not like the Israeli behavior detection model. Unlike the Israeli program, SPOT is conducted from a distance, with no personal interaction between the passenger and the TSA employee performing the SPOT screening unless the passenger is identified for secondary screening," Mica said. "El Al also trains all their staff in behavior detection techniques, not just the screening staff working the passenger checkpoints."
If you actually read the Government Accountability Office report (
GAO-10-763 pdf article) that Mica was referring to in his press conference, you find (p.10)
BDOs are expected to "walk the line"—that is, to initiate casual conversations with passengers waiting in line, particularly if their observations led them to question someone exhibiting behaviors or appearances on the SPOT checklist. As the BDOs walk the line, and the passenger with SPOT indicators is reached, a casual conversation is used to determine if there is a basis for observed behaviors or appearances on the checklist.
And there's this from a
2006 article in the LA Times (emphasis added):
"It is a derivative of a program by the Israelis," Davis said.
In the TSA version, she said, uniformed officers in and around security checkpoints scan passengers for "involuntary physical and psychological reactions" that behavioral scientists say may signal stress, fear or deception. (The TSA declined to be more specific about reactions it monitors.)
Officers also "may engage the passenger in casual conversation to observe the response," she added. If a passenger shows enough suspicious behaviors, Davis said, that person may be sent to secondary screening or questioned by police.
So it seems that a main difference between the current BOS pilot program and the pre-existing program is that now all passengers will be engaged in conversation (presumably drawing from a predetermined set of questions) rather than just some passengers selected by BDOs.
I myself was taken aback last year when a uniformed agent who I presumed was a TSA agent approached me while I was in a checkpoint queue, I think at LAX, and started playing 20 questions with me. Since I travel a lot and had never experienced this before, and since it was clear to me that not all of the travelers were being asked these questions, I started to get very annoyed. He let it rest, and off I went.