Looking nervous? Yawning too much? TSA may be keeping an eye on you.
At airports around the country, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents are screening passengers and their stuff.
Looking through luggage this past week, they came upon the typical illegal arsenal: 53 firearms (44 of which were loaded and 24 with rounds chambered), filled ammunition clips, a live smoke grenade, stun guns, and a variety of large knives, one of them concealed inside a belt buckle. TSA doesn鈥檛 regularly report such encounters, but the week also likely included a number of passengers pulled aside for questioning and perhaps extra physical checking.
Now, the reasons for that extra questioning have been revealed by The Intercept, the online publication that first went public with the documents provided by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
As they scan passengers, TSA 鈥渂ehavioral detection officers鈥� look for 鈥渟tress factors,鈥� 鈥渇ear factors,鈥� and 鈥渄eception factors.鈥�
鈥淭he checklist ranges from the mind-numbingly obvious, like 鈥榓ppears to be in disguise鈥� 鈥� to the downright dubious, like a bobbing Adam鈥檚 apple,鈥� The Intercept reports. 鈥淢any indicators, like 鈥榯rembling鈥� and 鈥榓rriving late for flight,鈥� appear to confirm allegations that the program picks out signs and emotions that are common to many people who fly.鈥�
The 92-point checklist includes body odor, exaggerated yawning, excessive throat clearing, widely open staring eyes, exaggerated or excessive grooming gestures, a face pale from the recent shaving of one鈥檚 beard, rubbing or wringing of hands, and an 鈥渙bvious 鈥楢dam鈥檚 Apple鈥� jump鈥� when asked to go through screening procedures.鈥�
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has sued TSA under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for documents related to the SPOT program.
鈥淭he TSA's use of such techniques raises serious civil liberties concerns about racial and religious profiling and has been criticized as ineffective and lacking a valid scientific basis,鈥� the ACLU says in its FOIA request.
鈥淭he Government Accountability Office and independent scientific advisory groups have concluded that there's just no evidence that humans can reliably detect deception or ill intent in others based on their behavior,鈥� ACLU attorney Hugh Handeyside told NPR. 鈥淭he program has led to numerous allegations of racial and religious profiling, which isn't surprising given that you're basically giving TSA officers permission to make hasty, gut-level judgments about people's intentions based on nothing more than their facial expressions or their behavior.鈥�
University of Chicago behavioral scientist Nicholas Epley is skeptical as well.
鈥淭he data that comes from experiments that test whether people can detect these subtle kinds of cues suggest that it can't be detected very well,鈥� Dr. Epley said on NPR. 鈥淭here are certainly lots of claims about how body language can be read better if you're trained, but a lot of those kinds of claims come without data to back them up.鈥�
For its part, TSA is standing by its SPOT program as a necessary part of airport and air travel security.
鈥淏ehavior detection, which is just one element of the Transportation Security Administration鈥檚 (TSA) efforts to mitigate threats against the traveling public, is vital to TSA鈥檚 layered approach to deter, detect and disrupt individuals who pose a threat to aviation,鈥� an agency spokesman said in a statement to The Intercept. 鈥淣o single behavior alone will cause a traveler to be referred to additional screening or will result in a call to a law enforcement officer.鈥�
