BDOs Gauge Risk Potential In Passenger Facial Expressions
The eyes of the Transportation
Safety Administration are upon you... in the airport, anyway. TSA
Administrator Kip Hawley told an aviation industry group in
Washington last month Behavior Detection Officers can be considered
security upgrades.
He described the officers as "a wonderful tool to be able to
identify and do risk management prior to somebody coming into the
airport or approaching the crowded checkpoint," according to
McClatchey Newspapers.
The program began as a pilot program in 2006 and has proven
"very successful" in identifying suspicious airline passengers,
according to TSA public affairs specialist Amy Kudwa. Trained
officers have identified illegal immigrants, drug carriers as well
as terrorism suspects so far.
Already positioned in more than a dozen US airports, Kudwa said
the agency plans to have 500 fully trained BDOs working by the end
of next year.
BDOs work in teams of two with one officer openly scrutinizing
passengers while the other seemingly performs another task. When a
passenger exhibits suspicious behavior, the officers increase their
scrutiny by performing seemingly innocent actions such as polite
conversation or assistance with belongings. If the suspicious
behavior continues, the passenger is then referred to law
enforcement for additional questioning and investigation.
The program is based on a similar program long used in Israel,
according to Paul Ekman, program advisor and former professor at
the University of California at San Francisco. But, it's a
watered-down version, he said. US officers receive only 16 hours of
training... because the US doesn't want to be as intrusive as the
Israeli program is said to be.
BDOs are trained to watch for specific facial expressions and
body language for signs a passenger is up to no good. Ekman, a
pioneer in the new screening system, says people reveal their
emotions in flashes of "micro expressions" with fear and disgust as
key emotions because they are connected to deception.
The undersecretary of Homeland Security for Science and
Technology, Jay M. Cohen, likes the program so much he said he
wants to automate passenger screening and use computers to analyze
body temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate in conjunction
with interpreting body language.
DHS is now actively seeking input from scientists on how to
develop such technology. The proposal submission deadline is August
31.