TSA to Implement Israel-Style Airport Security Procedures

Unlike in US airports, where passengers go through security after checking in for their flights and submitting their luggage, security at Ben Gurion comes first. Only when the profiler is satisfied that a passenger poses no risk is he or she allowed to proceed to the check-in counter. By that point, there is no need to make him remove his shoes, or to confiscate his bottle of water.

 

Mike Riggs
Reason.com
8/2/2011

The Boston Herald reports that the Transportation Security Administration will be trying out Israel-style screening techniques at Logan International Airport:

The training for the Israeli-style screening — a projected $1 billion national program dubbed Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques — kicks off today at Logan International Airport and will be put to use in Terminal A on Aug. 15. It requires screeners to make quick reads of whether passengers pose a danger or a terror threat based on their reactions to a set of routine questions.

Under the SPOT program, as passengers hand over their boarding passes and identification, specially trained agents will ask three to four questions — from “Where have you been?” to “Do you have a business card?” and “Where are you traveling?” — while looking for “micro expressions,” such as lack of eye contact, that might hint at nefarious intent.

Suspicious individuals will be pulled aside for more questioning, full-body scans and pat-downs. If the encounter escalates, agents will call in state police.

At Logan, about 70 agents — all with college degrees — are undergoing training by an international consulting firm that includes a four-day classroom course and 24 hours of on-the-job experience, said TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis.

Skeptics of the current TSA system, which treats every passenger like a potential terrorist, have been divided over the wisdom of using Israel’s psychological screening in the states, where the average big city airport does twice as much traffic per year as Ben Gurion International, Israel’s only international airport…

The article continues at Reason.com

Also, The Toughest Airline Security of All

 

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