'Behavior detection' officers covertly watch travelers' conduct
Officers undergo four days of behavior training, which includes training to spot suicide terrorists, and then receive 24 hours of on-the-job preparation.
The 'Behavior detection' officers, more like Thought Police, do not receive much training and will simply follow the whims of orders coming down the pike. IOW, they don't know what they're doing, do not serve the purpose of finding terrorists, and will assuredly just add another layer of harassment to the airport ordeal.
Koshetz said the TSA has established specific criteria for what is considered normal behavior "in an airport environment." She said officers react only if a passenger strays from those guidelines, which the TSA declines to reveal for security purposes.
In any venue, there are standards of conduct that are enforced, airports are no different. So why do we need an extra layer of poorly trained 'Behavior detection' officers? This article mentions cases of finding drug traffickers and a man who was carrying multiple ID's, all problems that were being handled before the TSA.
To identify potentially dangerous individuals, the Transportation Security Administration has stationed specially trained behavior-detection officers at 161 U.S. airports. The officers may be positioned anywhere, from the parking garage to the gate, trying to spot passengers who show an unusual level of nervousness or stress.
A lot of what has been done in the past 20 years in our airports, and especially since 9/11, is preparation for restricting travel in the USA. There are over 1 million Americans on the "no fly list". You have to have a passport to exit the US since July 2009, which is a first in our nation's history. In a free country there is freedom to travel, especially within the borders. There are already plans underway in the UK to restrict airplane travel because of alleged global warming, and once enacted there, it will come here next.
The article doesn't mention that these screeners have been in place for over a year, and that the TSA announced plans to install infrared cameras with other technology that would monitor people's physiological processes: temperature, perspiration, facial expressions, etc. Then there was the great idea TSA had for TSA taser shock bracelet requirement for all passengers. And don't forget about the new technology that scans your body beneath your clothes, producing an image of you nude, or a virtual strip search. This is pentultimate humiliation and is not justified by fear of the terrorist bogey man.