Hmm, perhaps the TSOs played so well in the sandbox because they were being observed for a newspaper column? Nahhhh.

Mike

hehe... my thoughts exactly!

No 'micro-expressions' or whatever he calls them that a good shot of botox can't fix!

The objective of posting the article was to show that Behavior Detection has some scientific backing. That there is a basis in science for Behavior Detection. Its not voodoo, not magic, but it is also not completely proven (or even close). The same can be said for psychology, astrophysics, and a few other areas where one can get a post-graduate degree. Behavior Detection is mostly psychology, which may very well be voodoo but I have seen it used effectively around the world.

You can always find someone out there who will poo-poo what someone else claims (Flat Earth-ers, Moon Landing, Area 51), someone out there believes that “Math” is not an exact science. Go figure. It does not matter how old the article is, nor how the professor is reimbursed or not reimbursed for his time with the TSA, but if it provides a “value add” to the TSA and its mission. Obviously the TSA thinks so, but Behavior Detection has its limitations and the TSA knows this. It cant tell you if someone is a terrorist. Sorry, not going to happen. It CAN tell you if someone is displaying the signs of deception in an unconscious way. What happens from there is up to the BDO and the other part of their training.

(disclaimer: I am not a BDO, nor do I have the training as one, but I find the concepts of their job fascinating)

you got that right :(

generalissimo joseph mccarthy is still dead ;)

Actually, it matters very much to me how the TSA spends my tax dollars.

I know next to nothing about behavior detection, so I'm not going to question how effective it is. Here's my issue with the BDOs: They've caught nobody but drug carriers and a few people with fake ID's. Nobody related to terrorism. Given how the brass trumpets every pot bust it makes, I have no doubt that it would let us know if it caught somebody even remotely related to national security. But the mission creep is astounding.

Mike

I think most of are objecting not to the science itself, but to the way how it is being used to harrass innocent people.

I think most of us believe in the subject of psychology, but strongly object when it it becomes a tool of harrassment and oppression in the form of BDOs in airports.

Let me give a more extreme example: psychiatry. Few would dispute its value. But in the USSR it was used as tool to suppress any form of free thought. For instance, people who believed in God were often declared insane and locked up in mental institutions where they were "treated" with powerful mind-altering drugs.

OTOH, I have not seen either mathematics or astrophysics used in this manner. BTW, I have a Ph.D. in both physics and math.

I think I made my point.

At the risk of speaking for some of my fellow FTers, the thing I think we object to the most is just what you state -- the unproven aspects of "behavior detection." Like the War on Shampoo, the TSA or DHS has never produced any shred of peer-reviewed science concluding that the basic science underlying the SPOTNik program is sound. By parading around a bunch of people as SPOTNiks, you place innocent people into the position of being intimidated and spilling their guts -- sometimes even incriminating themselves by unwittingly surrendering their 5th Amendment rights. Someone exercising their rights by ignoring or ripping a SPOTNik a new one is immediately turned over to an airport cop for further harassment. Cost and questionable science aside, needless intimidation and harassment is what I assert most of us find quite objectionable.

... as is William Proxmire who succeeded him ...

Has there been any hijacking since the programme started? ;)

Then why is the TSA wasting taxpayer dollars for something that even you say is not proven?

Something that is proven is x-ray technology. And the fact of the matter is most, if not all, of the TSA checkpoints are still using the two-dimensional technology that was used back when the Tony Orlando & Dawn were hot.

Updating the x-ray system would be of more benefit to the TSA than it realizes. As it is right now, one of the largest reasons there's a big line at the checkpoints is because us passengers need to accommodate for the many TSA shortcomings. We need to take the liquids out, because the TSA doesn't have the technology to tell what's in that bottle of Aquafina, we need to take the laptop out because the x-ray can't see it in a bag properly, we need to take our shoes off because the TSA can't figure out what's in them. We need to take out CPAP machines because some moron at Long Beach decided a Wii was a bomb.

Diverting money from the unproven, wasteful BDO program to updating x-ray technology would be a boon to the TSA. First, it might actually convert 90% failure rates to 90% detection rates. Second, it would speed up the lines when passengers don't have to accommodate for the TSA shortcomings, as listed in the previous paragraph.

And last but not least (for the TSA), it would give them some positive PR. Not to mention something other than lowering itself to to brag about catching some college kid with fake ID.

We're into year number eight of the TSA. Three changes to the uniforms, no changes to x-ray technology. That's pathetic, and it's time the TSA start protecting the traveling public instead of talking about it.

Severus Snape remains unpaid for his potion of anti-terrorism. @:-)

Two reasons - it provides employment for thousands of TSA'ers and their suppliers, and when it comes to the federal government and security, the culture of fear still controls. I attend several security-related meetings every month - and have since 9/11 - and unless someone has the guts to stand up and say "this is a really stupid idea," no one wants to take ownership of a decision that may result in being scapegoated should something "bad" happens.

Oh, in case you are wondering, I have stood up to DHS - successfully - to cast a disinfecting light on their stupid idea of the day. :cool:

This is where greed and the government procurement system comes in. Why improve an existing technology when we can divert taxpayer money to fund unproven technology that still brings jobs home to the district?

TSA is caught in a web of their own making. They have been provided with - and rejected - a thorough report detailing the greatest threats to aviation safety, and continue to ignore it, because if they accepted it, we wouldn't need most of the 45,000 TSO's that do virtually nothing more than their predecessors did.

Come to think of it, wouldn't Alan Rickman make a great Kip Hawley or Michael Chertoff in a DHS movie?

Mike

Ekman is the guy on whom the lead character on the Fox show "Lie to Me" is based. Interestingly, in the pilot episode of that show, the doctor recruits a TSA screener who has demonstrated an innate ability to catch people lying (she's termed a very rare "natural").

I won't deny that his theories probably have some validity... but the idea that you can train anyone to use them in a few hours is utterly ridiculous.

I don’t see any harassment from BDO’s. They watch. No harassment there. They refer passengers for secondary screening. No more a form of harassment than the rest of the screening process. They ask questions. Could be harassment, depends on how its used.

Ok, now your just being silly. Oppression? Hardly. I admit it is a tool, just like the WTMD and the X-Ray, except that this one focus’s on the individuals who may cause harm rather than the devices of harm. Ever hear the term “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”? Watching the people is just as if not more important than the devices.

Extreme is right. Very. And explosives are a tool, useful in many things in the construction industry. They can also be used for….

OK Doc, here is another, point that is. Mathematics: Without which the Atomic Bomb could not have been built. Nothing throughout the history of mankind has oppressed more people than that one invention, and continues to. Anything can be used for purposes other than peaceful. ANYTHING. And it’s the people who control its use, which is why it is just as important to bring the people into the whole checkpoint equation, and the BDO's are doing just that.