Suspicious behavior at Jacksonville airport would get more attention
TSA and other aviation security agencies put more emphasis on detecting suspicious behavior at airports as the first line of defense against terrorism; a Florida airport deploys behavioral observation officers
There is another layer of security in place at Florida’s Jacksonville International Airport: Behavioral detection officers. They operate under DHS’s SPOT program (for Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques) (see HSDW story). The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is using staff trained to spot suspicious activity and ask questions of travelers who seem uneasy. Ed Goodwin, TSA’s regional security director, says the officers who received special training have been in place for about a month at Jacksonville International Airport. “The fear of being discovered,” says Goodwin is hard to mask. “It’s hard to cover that up both physically and physiologically.”
The officers are trained to approach people who show nervous activity by asking them basic questions like, “What time is it?” A person’s response could generate more follow up by the officer. Seventy airports across the country are using behavioral detection officers. Nationally, nearly 4,000 people have been referred to local authorities for additional background checks with 682 arrests being made since the program began four years ago.
