Behavior Detection Program Hitting Stride With TSA

Travelers at major airports across the country are being scrutinized by teams of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) behavior-detection officers specially trained to discern the subtlest suspicious behaviors.

TSA officials will not reveal specific behaviors identified by the program -- called SPOT (Screening Passengers by Observation Technique) -- that are considered indicators of possible terrorist intent.

But a central task is to recognize microfacial expressions -- a flash of feelings that in a fraction of a second reflects emotions such as fear, anger, surprise or contempt, says Carl Maccario, who helped start the program for TSA.

"In the SPOT program, we have a conversation with (passengers) and we ask them about their trip," Maccario told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "When someone lies or tries to be deceptive, ... there are behavior cues that show it. ... A brief flash of fear."

Such people are referred for secondary screening, which can include a pat-down search and an X-ray exam. The microfacial expressions, he says, are the same across many cultures.

Since January 2006, behavior-detection officers have referred about 70,000 people for secondary screening, Maccario says. Of those, about 600 to 700 were arrested on a variety of charges, including possession of drugs, weapons violations and outstanding warrants.

Maccario will not say whether the teams have disrupted any terrorist operations. But he did say that there are active counterterrorism investigations under way that began with referrals from the program.

SPOT began spreading out to airports across the nation two years after initial testing began in 2003 in Boston, Providence, R.I., and Portland, Maine. It's now at more than 50 airports and continues to grow.

Last month, behavior-detection officers observed two Phoenix passengers behaving suspiciously as they approached the travel document checking station. Because of their behavior, both passengers were referred for additional screening after they presented their boarding passes and Permanent Resident cards to the TSA document checkers. During the physical bag and property search, the security officers discovered fraudulent Social Security and Permanent Resident cards.

At Washington Dulles International Airport, behavior detection officers identified five men who had entered the United States illegally and possessed likely-fraudulent identification.

At Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, an individual who was deported in 2000 to Mexico after being charged with a double murder was caught using SPOT.

During screening, the officers ask simple questions, but it's almost irrelevant what your answers are, Maccario told the Post-Intelligencer. "It's more relevant how you respond. Vague, evasive responses -- fear shows itself. When you do this long enough, you see it right away."

Part of the training for SPOT screeners is a cultural awareness component, Maccario says. For example, in some cultures people don't make eye contact with people in authority.

"We don't care where you are from," Maccario says. "It's no longer subjective. If you are acting a certain way, that's what is going to attract our attention.