Behave Yourself At Airports

[MA-Caver]

Miami airport expands efforts to screen travelers' behavior
The Associated Press
Published: September 7, 2006
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/07/america/NA_GEN_US_Profiling_Terrorist_Behavior.php
MIAMI Authorities at about a dozen American airports use "behavior pattern recognition" — monitoring passengers' involuntary actions in hopes of nabbing potential terrorists -- and Miami officials are so impressed with the techniques that they plan to have janitors and skycaps eyeballing the crowds.
If Miami officials have their way, all the airport's 35,000 workers — from janitors to skycaps to Starbucks baristas — will be trained to watch travelers' movements and detect potentially dangerous fliers.
"If you had 35,000 pairs of eyes observing suspicious behavior, that's a strong layer of security," said Greg Chin, a spokesman at Miami International Airport, where officials began training managers Thursday.

So now I got 35,000 pairs of eyes watching me and everyone else waiting to get aboard a plane. Gee that makes me feel so much better, so warm and so safe. Wait! Just watched a father give his teenage son a discreet something from his pocket!! CALL THE COPS! CALL SECURITY!!!

Oh, wait dad was just slipping junior an extra 50 bucks for his visit to his uncle's ranch out in Texas somewhere... s'ok!

Wait! Why is that guy fiddling with his shoes all the time?? SECURITY!!!
Nevermind the guy had holes in his socks and they were chaffing.

What the hell. Lets all just DRIVE to where we need to go. Less hassle that way. At least I don't have to worry about some Starbuck's server calling security on me because I couldn't decide between a cappachino and a latte and kept glancing at my watch and looking over my shoulder every few moments (to see if my travel companion has caught up with me). Or a janitor's suspicion that I was in the restroom "far too long" because I might've been constipated.

Funny? Maybe, but how well are people going to be trained to the point of paranoia about everyone who is acting "suspiciously". Hell I see it all the time, I sometimes act that way. Does it mean I'm gonna do a Die Hard and take over the friggin airport?

Didn't they do this in the Soviet Union? Germany during the late 30's and early 40's??

 

[Empty Hands]

I'm tempted to get hopped up on caffeine and skulk around the Miami airport for fun.

Eventually, I'm sure we'll have roadblocks and highway security. Just think what fun that'll be!

 

[newGuy12]

papieren, bitte

 

[MA-Caver]

I'm tempted to get hopped up on caffeine and skulk around the Miami airport for fun.

Eventually, I'm sure we'll have roadblocks and highway security. Just think what fun that'll be!

You won't have to go to Miami for that... eventually it'll be at LAX... and DFW, Chicago O'Hare, Kennedy International, and just about everywhere else.

 

[grydth]

papieren, bitte

There's 2 schools of thought on this one, one being that we are becoming an all intrusive police state - - - without even being that much safer. Let's snoop on everyone - just like the commies we hated did in the 50's. Cameras everywhere, records kept on phones/banks/internet activity, zero privacy. Oh, and the actual terrorists - THEY HAVE RIGHTS!

The other view, though, is how often ordinary folks' tips are the key to catching the worst criminals. The police may get 300 calls that lead nowheres - the 301st brings them a most wanted felon. You'll never convince me that more people didn't see or suspect the 9/11 cannibals in preparation - what lives might have been saved if more had come forward early on? Airport workers know the norms and know the environment, I'd think they would be valuable to police.

 

[Empty Hands]

The other view, though, is how often ordinary folks' tips are the key to catching the worst criminals.

In the case of unknown and unidentified terrorists, the problem is the false-positive rate. This is separate from the privacy concerns, of course.

If what you want the public to look for is "a 5'10" asian man with a scar above his left eye" or a "white GMC with a busted right taillight" your false-positives are manageable. If what you want the public to look for is "suspicious behavior" you are going to be getting thousands of false reports for every real one. Any effectiveness of the program will be destroyed by the need to comb through all the false reports.

It will be even worse in real life as the public has no real conception of what true "suspicious behavior" is vis a vis terrorism. See here for an example.

 

[jks9199]

This isn't the big deal some people think it is. A good cop, good security guard, or even a good salesperson learns to do this without giving it a fancy name. It's ismply the process of recognizing and interpreting specific clusters of behavior. Let me describe a guy that caught my interest one afternoon:
It was about 1:30 or so in the afternoon, a little late for lunch in the area, but early for schools to let out, and early for someone working a typical early shift. I noticed the guy, dressed in black clothes and jacket, carrying a backpack with some sort of long, tubular object attached to the outside. He was walking by a house that had recently had some extensive landscaping done, and paying a lot of attention to the house. Not so much the landscaping -- but the house. Note, none of this was illegal behavior in and of itself. But -- the combination of specific behaviors attracted my attention. I made contact with him; I didn't have enough to push things to far when he got uptight that I was daring to speak with him. See, most of the time, when I contact someone in their own neighborhood like that, they're actually pretty appreciative -- not defensive. Now, I can't prove anything, but we also didn't have a daytime burglary that afternoon.

A salesperson does the same thing. A prospective customer walks in, and the salesperson starts assessing whether they're actually going to buy, or just shopping. They note the areas the person is looking at to see what they're after, and maybe their price range. They know that a person looking at this item might be good for buying that item, too...

In terms of the public looking out for suspicious behavior -- we encourage that all the time. There are only so many sets of eyes in the security/law enforcement bodies in various places -- and they don't LIVE there like a resident does. People's behavior changes as soon as a cop is around. But the public does need some education on what is "suspicious" or anything gets called in... (Personally, I've always been amazed at how seldom someone calls me in when I'm doing surveillance! I'm sitting on a street for hours in a parked car in front of someone's house -- but nobody calls me in?)

 

[kidswarrior]

What the hell. Lets all just DRIVE to where we need to go.

That's what I've decided to do. Course a week ago I did get pulled over in another state (I guess California plates are fair game), frisked and stuffed in the back of a police cruiser while a 12 year old cop wrote out a warning ticket for me. What, he was afraid that by leaving me in my car, I, my wife the preschool teacher, and our ferocious poodle mix would peel out in our 11 year old Mazda and lose him on the freeway? :rofl:

Anyway, he was young and actually a nice kid. Just needs some more living under his belt, and there's no harm in that. And it's still better than flying.

 

[MA-Caver]

Originally Posted by grydth The other view, though, is how often ordinary folks' tips are the key to catching the worst criminals. The police may get 300 calls that lead nowheres - the 301st brings them a most wanted felon. You'll never convince me that more people didn't see or suspect the 9/11 cannibals in preparation - what lives might have been saved if more had come forward early on? Airport workers know the norms and know the environment, I'd think they would be valuable to police.

In the case of unknown and unidentified terrorists, the problem is the false-positive rate. This is separate from the privacy concerns, of course.

If what you want the public to look for is "a 5'10" asian man with a scar above his left eye" or a "white GMC with a busted right taillight" your false-positives are manageable. If what you want the public to look for is "suspicious behavior" you are going to be getting thousands of false reports for every real one. Any effectiveness of the program will be destroyed by the need to comb through all the false reports.

It will be even worse in real life as the public has no real conception of what true "suspicious behavior" is vis a vis terrorism. See here for an example.

grydth is correct that it will increase the likelihood of catching someone bad. But as Empty Hands pointed out there will be a lot of "false positives" to sort through. Not only that but also false negatives. People not suspected and then turning out to be the Attas and McVie's.
Thus my question of how sure are they going to be with their training methods? Pretty sure I guess, but these are everyday people. They're talking about janitors and coffee jerks (Starbucks workers) and skycaps and so on.
Janitors don't deal with people too much face to face it's true, but the others deal with thousands of people on a given day (especially at an airport).
They may spot someone suspicious... will they have to take a couple of minutes out of their busy moments to report them?
Think about that for a moment. Take the skycap... helping folks out carrying their luggage to the counter or to the taxi's outside, they earn tips on top of their hourly. The more folks they help the more tips they get. Stopping even long enough to call in on the radio for a "code 258" Then having to wait for the proper authority (security guard/police) to come over and then having to try and keep up with the "suspect" (as they'll undoubtedly now be called) so to identify them to the guard/cop... how many tip$ did he just lose right there? Talking about some guy's livelihood.
Same with the Starbucks guy... stopping everything to get on the phone to security and they got 8-12 people in line waiting for their order and some probably only have maybe 20 or less minutes before their flight... but that's gotta be on hold so a suspect can be reported. Chances are they're going to walk off so to not miss their flight and thus revenue loss to the business because of somebody acting suspicious and it's got to be reported, described behavior, appearance, positive ident and so on.
"Ok, so now how can I help you sir?... oh wait gotta another suspicious looking fella hold on!"
I might be exaggerating a mite bit but I mite not. Point is, there will be some after a period of time... bored, wanting to be a hero deep down inside and so forth. Even the 1 in 1000 chance that they had a bad run-in with someone and then see them a few hours later... "hmm, yeah lets screw up that a-hole's day"... and falsely report suspicious behavior tying up that person's schedule (missed flight) then saying "oops my bad. I'll be more careful and re-read my training manual. :uhyeah: "
Still to screen through that many reported persons means hiring more people to check them out. Hiring more qualified/skilled people to check them out. More of our tax dollars at work.

In the mean time where the hell did that skycap go? I'm gonna miss my flight dammit!

 

[jks9199]

Thus my question of how sure are they going to be with their training methods? Pretty sure I guess, but these are everyday people. They're talking about janitors and coffee jerks (Starbucks workers) and skycaps and so on.
Janitors don't deal with people too much face to face it's true, but the others deal with thousands of people on a given day (especially at an airport).
They may spot someone suspicious... will they have to take a couple of minutes out of their busy moments to report them?

That's actually a good point. I suspect that it'll be like the anti-shoplifter training most stores give their employees; a few minutes discussion, including "anti-bias education", and who to call. Managers or supervisors would probably get more training...

 

[Andy Moynihan]

papieren, bitte

NEIN! Ich woll nicht fliege!

 

[arnisador]

No one ever considers the false positives and their cost. Let's see 35K people...if only 1/10 of 1% of them make exactly one mistake each day, that's 35 false alarms raised daily (some of which might involve the same person of course).

We'll see.

 

[Andy Moynihan]

It's so awesome that I don't have a job that precludes refusal to fly.

 

[Tames D]

Three words: Terrorism has won.

 

[Twin Fist]

no, it hasnt.

Their goal isnt to "change the way we do things" their goal is to kill us all and convert our lands to islam

 

[Kacey]

no, it hasnt.

Their goal isnt to "change the way we do things" their goal is to kill us all and convert our lands to islam

Uh... the article was about using non-security personnel to screen for potential terrorists based on behavior - are you suggesting that those non-security personnel are attempting to "kill us all and convert our lands to islam [sic]"? :idunno: Or are you referring to the people these non-security personnel are potentially being trained to identify?

Either way, there are terrorists out there who have nothing to do with Islam, and plenty of Muslims who are not terrorists.

 

[MA-Caver]

Three words: Terrorism has won.

no, it hasn't.

Their goal isnt to "change the way we do things" their goal is to kill us all and convert our lands to islam

I agree they haven't won. They will not win. America by itself is far too strong to be done away by radical muslims. With the aid of Allies that suffer terrorist attacks on a more frequent basis the terrorists cannot win. They will try to hurt us greviously of course and may succeed in winning battles here and there, but never the war.
Terrorist's objectives is to spread fear.
I do not walk/drive around worrying about every shopping mall I walk into is going to explode from a suicide bomber. I do fear they will strike again and the casualties will be great but the only fear is of the inevitable. But of the when I don't worry.
What I do fear is the gradual, very subtle losses of liberty. Like a barber giving a trim, a little snip here another tiny snip there. Keep it up and eventually there's nothing more to snip, unless the customer stops the barber.

 

[Tames D]

no, it hasnt.

Their goal isnt to "change the way we do things" their goal is to kill us all and convert our lands to islam

That may not be their goal but that is what they have done. That's why I say terrorism has won.

 

[CanuckMA]

The other view, though, is how often ordinary folks' tips are the key to catching the worst criminals. The police may get 300 calls that lead nowheres - the 301st brings them a most wanted felon. You'll never convince me that more people didn't see or suspect the 9/11 cannibals in preparation - what lives might have been saved if more had come forward early on? Airport workers know the norms and know the environment, I'd think they would be valuable to police.

Difference is, 300 people call the police dept, a trained investigator takes a couple of hours to check out the lead and dismiss it. No harm, no foul. The person may not even know the cops gave him a look-see.

Janitor fingers me at the airport. Couple of hours is a missed flight. Plus now the airline has to unload my luggage from the plane, find me a seat on the next flight out, rejig my connections, perhaps even compensate me if I have to spend the night. The delay could cost me or my company real money. We might sue.

It's a stupid idea.

 

[Twin Fist]

IF, and thats the operative word, IF the training is good, the program will do some good.

The more eyes the better