Next time you go to the airport, try not to look afraid. "Behavior Detection Officers" may be scanning your facial expressions and body language for "signs of bad intentions," according to an article by McClatchy Newspapers.
These officers are working in more than a dozen airports already, and TSA hopes to have 500 officers in place by the end of 2008. So how does it work?
At the heart of the new screening system is a theory that when people try to conceal their emotions, they reveal their feelings in flashes that Ekman, a pioneer in the field, calls "micro-expressions." Fear and disgust are the key ones, he said, because they're associated with deception.Behavior detection officers work in pairs. Typically, one officer sizes up passengers openly while the other seems to be performing a routine security duty. A passenger who arouses suspicion, whether by micro-expressions, social interaction or body language gets subtle but more serious scrutiny.
A behavior specialist may decide to move in to help the suspicious passenger recover belongings that have passed through the baggage X-ray. Or he may ask where the traveler's going. If more alarms go off, officers will "refer" the person to law enforcement officials for further questioning.
I already get a little nervous going through airport security. It is the place that I am most aware of my Middle Eastern appearance and name. We've all heard stories about innocent passengers' trips being ruined after they were incorrectly placed on the No-Fly list or detained by an overzealous airport official.
Now, our body language is being scanned by detection officers who've had just 16 hours of training and are making judgments about our intentions based on "flickers of expression that last no more than a fraction of a second."
Who wouldn't look afraid?
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Comments (1)
I guess roughly 70 years is the amount of time that people, especially of European origin, purge themselves of past lessons and begin to commit the biggest crimes of history all over again. At least the Gestapo wore uniforms and Swastikas to distinguish themselves from the crowd. In the US people are such cowards that these new Behaviour Police are in plain clothes sneaking around airports ready to pounce on unsuspecting innocent people. 300 arrests, none of which have been "terrorist" related, out of 40,000 detainments is 0.75%?! Four days classroom plus three days on-the-job training is obviously no where near enough. Drivers training courses are longer. The all encompassing question is how can a population of roughly 300 million people be so cowardly to the point of allowing a small group of wealthy individuals destroy the world, socially & physically? Is it some delusional idea that they might someday be allowed admittance into the club? Is greed a genetic abnormality in the European genome or has Capitalist/Religious greed become such an accepted norm that all else is forfeit? I guess Global Warming is like radiation treatments and chemotherapy, cook the patient to get rid of a preventable disease. Cook the planet to get ride of the Capitalist/Religious infection, but end up killing everyone. Sad.
Posted by Afraid to be targeted at the airport | September 21, 2007 6:52 PM