I had not planned to write about the Behavior Detection SPOT program yet again, in large part because GAO, Congress, the media, and just about every observer with a lick of common sense has debunked the ineffective process in a dozen different ways. However, the confluence of two recent events bring it to our derisive attention yet again. The ACLU has now sued the federal government for information on the program’s operation and effectiveness, which they say leads to discrimination, and several weeks ago the TSA’s 72-point BDO “checklist” was leaked online, which seems to confirm the ACLU’s suspicions. According to that list, you and I, and most of my family, should apparently be carted off to the slammer if we ever set foot in an airport again.
I was unaware that there are apparently three levels of BDO scoring factors working against us: stress (1 point), fear (2 points) and deception (3 points) - which further assumes one could tell the difference among them. Allow me to elaborate; I see little risk of violating the sensitive security warning on the document, since as far as I can tell, discussion of “silly” remains legal.
I hardly know where to begin. Most of the items on the list are led by pejorative characterizations such as “excessive”, “exaggerated” or “repetitive”, which means that some is OK, but not too much, and none of which are possible to define. I hesitate to select among my other favorites because the huge majority are all equally disturbing. Any two “signs of deception” such as excessive throat clearing (my congenital post nasal drip) and constantly looking at other travelers or associates (I try to look interested when speaking to my wife or my business partner), generates an automatic law enforcement notification. How does a “bag appears heavier than expected” become a fear factor? When does “not understanding questions” not have an ESL caveat, especially at international airports? Where’s the stress factor in “males 20-40 traveling together who are not part of a family”? – such as my son’s volleyball team, or perhaps my airport security team headed out for a job.... with our blueprints, training materials, a GPS unit and diagrams of high profile targets in our tote bags, all of which appear on the uh-oh scoreboard.
It appears that many of the items on the BDO checklist are written so purposefully generic in order to give them the greatest opportunity for flexibility of interpretation - but that’s precisely the point. The language is so broad and definition-free as to have virtually no limits at all. I had no trouble at all coming up with dozens of acutely normal everyday explanations for all but a few, and even more justifications to exhibit 2,3 or 4 stress/fear/deception factors simultaneously, because some of them actually generate the onset of others – again, providing you an automatic meeting with the nice man with the gun...which then kicks in 2 or 3 more stress and fear factors to justify the BDO’s mostly unwarranted “observations”.
The ACLU lawsuit noted the government has spent more than $1 billion on that program alone since 2007, calling it “a waste of taxpayer money, leads to racial profiling, and should be scrapped...there’s no evidence the program works.” Even the Department of Homeland Security’s own inspector general found no evidence the program worked. And yet, there they are, watching you, scoring every suspicious twitch and spasm and guilty look.
You know that little thing in your head that stops you when you shouldn’t say something? Yeah – I don’t have one of those…. but some days the supply of curse words is insufficient to meet my demands.
