The
Transportation Security Administration will expand its Screening
of Passengers by Observation Techniques program by requiring every airline passenger
traveling through Boston Logan International Airport to engage in a "brief
conversation" with a TSA officer, who will perform a behavior analysis. A 60-day
pilot begins August 15.
Confirming
several media reports about the new pilot, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said passengers
will be asked three or four questions, possibly related to their recent
whereabouts, their destination and whether they have a business card.
"All
passengers are being screened normally, but during the screening, it's [their]
interaction with the behavior officer, not so much your answer," Davis
said. "These officers are trained to observe passengers who are
[displaying] physical and physiological signs that they fear discovery or that
they are being deceptive."
Though the SPOT program first took effect in 2003
and currently is used in 160 airports, "what's different is that we are positioning
this right at the checkpoint along with the document checker," Davis said.
Up to this point, she explained, TSA officers "have walked around and
observed passengers, and they have engaged passengers in conversation, and they
have referred passengers for additional screenings." Now in Boston, if a
TSA officer is suspicious of a passenger following the behavioral assessment at
the checkpoint, that passenger will "undergo a pat-down and have your
carry-on physically searched."
TSA
will use the pilot in Boston to "inform any next steps," Davis said. "We
will look at the data that we collect during the 60 days and we will look at
how the program impacts passengers and screening operations, and how it impacts
wait times."
TSA
acknowledged the program could make some travelers uneasy, but accepts that
"normal behavior in an airport involves some level of nervousness and
anxiety," Davis said. She also claimed the program "is an antidote to
racial profiling because race and ethnicity is not something we look at all. If
you just focus on someone's race or ethnicity you are going to miss a terrorist."