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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.
But security experts wonder whether Transportation Safety Administration agents are up to the challenge after an embarrassing string of blunders — including patting down a 95-year-old grandmother in Florida and making her remove her adult diaper and frisking a 3-year-old girl who screamed “stop touching me” at a checkpoint in Tennessee.
TSA to put Hub fliers on the spot
Seeded on Mon Aug 8, 2011 9:32 PM EDT
Article Source: The Boston Herald
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…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.
- 3 votes
#1 - Mon Aug 8, 2011 9:33 PM EDTAt age of six months I contracted polio in 1949, prior to the vaccine, and as a result I have worn a full leg brace my whole life.
TSA searches me every time I board a plane. However, I cannot say that I am all that concerned about the action of a pat-down as much as I am about how there are some places where it really is out of line.
For example, the airport in Fort Lauderdale, FL may well be the worst airport in the US for over the top searches. On one occasion when flying to New York I found myself with my pants open and fly unzipped while being searched as boarding passengers passed in lines on either side of me.
A few years later after expressing my dissatisfaction with one particular over zealous TSA Agents search (again when I was departing for New York), I was pulled over on the street by two TSA agent's and a Broward County Sheriffs officer on the return flight. As I departed the airport I was stopped and my SUV was searched by a dog trained to sniff out explosives. I have never had any doubt this was a friendly reminder by the TSA that they have been given powers no other police agency in our history has ever possessed.
I truly believe TSA BELIEVES the disabled to have little, or no rights, and considers us less than American citizens; or we represent an opportunity for other passengers to see their tax dollars are being well spent by an inept and unregulated law enforcement agency.
Don I am sorry that we allowed that abuse to occur. You are correct when you say that the TSA targets disabled people. I am a tall athletic white male and have never been accosted by TSA.
I have witnessed TSA targeting elderly, disabled and children. This Cheney created agency assumed Dick's personality and unless they get curbed will soon assume the responsibilities of the Gestapo.
I again apologize for allowing this to happen in America. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
- 1 vote
Why in the world would they search you (and your vehicle) after you took the flight? Did I understand you correctly?
That really blows. TSA has their head so far up their asses they wouldn't recognize a real terror threat if it hit them in the face; they're too busy harassing ordinary citizens (and apparently those with disabilities).
Like AhhCrap (nice name, btw) said, I do not get searched often, unless I decline the body scanner or am traveling with a bunch of camera gear.
I don't really see any of this improving either.
- 1 vote
“Where have you been?”
In 1990 in Frantfurt Germany returning to the U.S. was the first & last time I was asked this. It was also the first time I ever saw a machine gun (armed soldiers patrolling the airport)
If they really think they can polish the turd known as the TSA, they've got another thing coming.
- 6 votes
#2 - Mon Aug 8, 2011 9:56 PM EDTWhy do I get the feeling that the TSA will find a way to screw the pooch on this thing too?
- 4 votes
#3 - Mon Aug 8, 2011 9:58 PM EDTUsing some kind of expression method to determine a greater probability of threat will only punish the anti-social and those with real anti-social mental disabilities that make them avoid eye contact and interactions with others. Yes, even this is discriminatory and ignorant to the fact that everyone is different and will respond to questions and conversation differently.
- 3 votes
#4 - Mon Aug 8, 2011 9:59 PM EDTThe cake can only come out as good as the ingredients that went into the batter; the people running TSA have proven themselves to be quite dense, and from my own experience, most of the employees on the front lines working for TSA at airports are not the sharpest tools in the shed. Many are just tools.
- 4 votes
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