ST. LOUIS, MO – Betty Brooks glanced over at the sparse line gathering at the security checkpoint inside Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

The airport was caught in a lull between the Christmas holidays and spring break. Slow days like these are longer ones for Brooks, one of more than two dozen specially trained behavior detection officers working for the Transportation Security Administration at Lambert.

"We have to have the people in order to do our job," Brooks said while a musician strummed his guitar nearby.

Brooks, 59, politely asked a traveler in a black jogging suit to lower his dark sunglasses as he walked past. She glanced at his eyes and allowed him to proceed. Brooks and other behavior detection officers scoured checkpoints and terminals for people exhibiting suspicious behavior that might pose a security threat.

During a recent two-hour stretch at this Main Terminal checkpoint, Brooks and a second behavior detection officer stopped just one traveler who warranted extra scrutiny — a brief chat, a pat-down and a search of his carry-on — before he went on to catch his flight.

Behavior detection is a touchy topic at the nation's airports. An October report by the National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, concluded that there is "no scientific consensus" that behavioral surveillance techniques like those employed by the TSA are an effective way to combat terrorism. It found they have "enormous potential for privacy violations."

Some security experts and civil libertarians say the practice also invites ethnic profiling.

But the agency defends the practice. Carl Maccario of the TSA helped develop the program known as Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT.

Maccario said behavior detection works, and it's actually "an antidote to racial profiling," because of its reliance on behavioral anomalies.

A TSA spokeswoman said the agency has received a total of five passenger complaints nationwide about the behavior detection program since it began about two years ago.

The TSA won't divulge the traits its officers watch for, but they include "involuntary physical and physiological reactions" people exhibit when they fear being discovered.

Brooks, who signed on for the behavior detection job about two years ago, said some of the techniques used in Fox's new TV drama, "Lie to Me," aren't too far off.

Two years ago, Brooks was a lead TSA screener who was looking for something more challenging when a friend called and told her she would be perfect for the new behavior detection program. Brooks has drawn on her screening experience and other past careers that have included a stint as a store detective.

Nationally, more than 2,500 behavior detection officers work in 161 airports. They receive four days of classroom training and three days of training on the job. Last year, they flagged 98,711 people for secondary screening and wound up referring 9,836 of those to law enforcement.

Those led to 807 arrests, many stemming from travelers being stopped with multiple IDs, bogus travel documents or drugs.

Last April, behavior detection officers stopped a Jamaican national who was acting suspiciously at Orlando International Airport. Authorities ultimately found components for a pipe bomb in his checked bags.

The worst thing that happens to most people selected under the TSA program is undergoing an additional screening, Maccario said. Their bags are searched, and they may be patted down and "wanded" with a hand-held metal detector.

Behavior detection has led to several calls to Lambert police.

"For us to become involved and do more than just a casual conversation, we have to operate on reasonable suspicion and probable cause," said Lambert Police Chief Paul Mason said. "If they call us, we respond. The officer does what he thinks his training tells him to do and what our procedures are."

Bill Switzer, the TSA's federal security director at Lambert, said the officers who volunteer to do behavior detection work have a background in security screening, and undergo a thorough assessment. Officers receive ongoing training.

"You can't just be anybody off the street," Switzer said.

But Mason, who is president of Airport Law Enforcement Agencies Network, disagrees. He said behavior detection officers attend a week's worth of classes to perform tasks that intelligence officers take years to perfect.

And the very nature of airports makes it difficult to get an accurate read of people, he added.

"When people come to an airport, they're usually experiencing some emotion. Anxiety. Joy," Mason said. "And how they manifest that could easily be mistaken for furtive behavior of a suspicious person."

Behavior detection officers recognize that people are sometimes on edge before flying, Brooks said.

"There is a different environment at the airport than in, for example, a shopping mall," said Brooks, a former store detective who watched the checkpoint leading to the C and D concourses. "And you have to take that into account. People are out of their element."

Copyright 2009 St. Louis Post-Dispatch L.L.C. All rights reserved. From http://www.stltoday.com. By Ken Leiser.
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