"screening Passengers By Observation Technique" (SPOT) 'behavior dection officers'

[SmellyFarang]

Interesting article about airport security "behavior detection officers"

 

"Airport security: Intent to deceive?"

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100526/full/465412a.html

 

TSA screeners trained to pick out suspicious or anomalous behaviour in passengers. There are about 3,000 of these officers working at some 161 airports across the United States, all part of a four-year-old programme called Screening Passengers by Observation Technique (SPOT), which is designed to identify people who could pose a threat to airline passengers.

...

Yet a growing number of researchers are dubious — not just about the projects themselves, but about the science on which they are based. "Simply put, people (including professional lie-catchers with extensive experience of assessing veracity) would achieve similar hit rates if they flipped a coin," noted a 2007 report1 from a committee of credibility-assessment experts who reviewed research on portal screening.

...

 

So what do you think?

 

Is this actually a real "science" that's making people safer,

 

or just another example of wasted money on bogus "feel good" security (while over 80% of airline cargo continues to go unscreened in passenger airliners to this day)?

 

And hey, why stop such a great idea at just airport screening? Why, the government could employ these "behavior detection officers" in all aspects of society, detecting & preventing all sorts of "deviant" behavior before it was done!

 

And does this mean I need to start hiding my erection better on my outbound trips to LOS?

[facer]

very interesting, i have been studying non-verbal communication, micro and macro expressions and tonal rhythm and intonations for a number of years and with a bit of practice it is very easy to detect sub conscious emotions that leak out via the afore mentioned vehicles. gestures often possess cultural deviations and contradictions, whereas there are about 8 emotions conveyed via facial expressions that have been scientifically established to be globally universal. These emotions often gesturally leak, often in the form of uni-lateral un-completed gestural illustrators, emblems or manipulators (types of non-verbal communication). To anyone who has practised these techniques the veracity is all too evident, one is able to pick up clues from others and from one-self, they are true markers of emotional feeling at a given moment. However although very effective at deciphering true emotional feelings, the reason a person is feeling those emotions is still that persons secret, for example we could spot via a macro expression a very clear contemptpual expression but not be totally sure of why these expressions are conveyed, although there would certainly be other non-verbal clues to help. Efficacy at reading people takes practice, experience, understanding and compassion. in addition these theories have been tested scientifically under controlled settings, this certainly isn't horoscopes. For anyone thats interested may i recommend some references :

 

Ekman P. Telling Lies clues to deciet (2009) Norton & company inc.

Ekman p. Friesan V. Unmasking The Face (2003) Cambridge MA

Morris D People-Watching Guide to Body Language (2002) Random House

Edited May 29, 2010 by facer

[Chris50]

Interesting article about airport security "behavior detection officers"

 

"Airport security: Intent to deceive?"

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100526/full/465412a.html

 

 

 

So what do you think?

 

Is this actually a real "science" that's making people safer,

 

or just another example of wasted money on bogus "feel good" security (while over 80% of airline cargo continues to go unscreened in passenger airliners to this day)?

 

And hey, why stop such a great idea at just airport screening? Why, the government could employ these "behavior detection officers" in all aspects of society, detecting & preventing all sorts of "deviant" behavior before it was done!

 

And does this mean I need to start hiding my erection better on my outbound trips to LOS?

Nice one yea i have been doing it for years .Always keep on the look out 35 years in the airline business keeps you on your guard .I i can spot a SB guy customs most off them in normal clothes .Its years of LOOKING

cheers Chris

[Shivers]

I seriously doubt any of these TSA employees get decent training. Example...I was once a cop and it seemed every time I flew somewhere I was getting hassled more than everyone else around me. They couldn't pick out a bad guy in a room full of bad guys...absolutely clueless, they are.

[facer]

I seriously doubt any of these TSA employees get decent training. Example...I was once a cop and it seemed every time I flew somewhere I was getting hassled more than everyone else around me. They couldn't pick out a bad guy in a room full of bad guys...absolutely clueless, they are.

 

Absolutely correct sir, a weekend course from some talking head just doesn't cut it...the whole process starts with an enquiry and a yearning for better understanding of ones-self. It takes compassion, years of reading and years of informed watching...reminds me of a couple of quotes:

 

"If falsehood, like truth, had only one face, we would be in better shape. For we would take as certain the opposite of what the liar said. But the reverse of truth has a hundred thousand shapes and a limit-less field." Montaigne

 

"All is suspect the suspect spy, as all is yellow to the jaundiced eye." Alexander Pope

Edited May 29, 2010 by facer

[El Cata]

During my return to blighty last month (Newcastle UK), I passed through the normal passport control & was stopped shortly after by a 'suit', who asked to see my passport. After he'd looked through it, a conversation ensued:

 

SUIT: Can I ask where you have been on holiday?

 

ME: Thailand.

 

SUIT: You've been a lot of times in the last year. Why is that?

 

ME: Once you've been once, you get addicted (big smile).

 

SUIT: Thank you sir.

 

Are these the type of guys you're talking about, or were they just the sex tourist police?

 

Peace.

[tigerstail]

Hot sweety..smelly.. falang..tee shirt..kaky shorts..tevas

perverted look to him..

drool coming down off his chin...

 

I don't know what this means? I need to look in my handbook to see

[hazze]

Maybe there is something in it.

 

I'd imagine pro's who really know what they are doing would be hard to pick out.

But usually its some poor smuck who's been brainwashed at the local Mosque that gets landed with the blowing planes up.

And a lot of these guys maybe more easy to spot. Losers in normal life, hiding in religion, nervous.

I guess screening like that could help.

 

I feels sorry for anyone that naturally just looks shifty or nervous though. Getting the treatment from security every time they fly will wont' make their nerves any easier on the next trip either.

 

If they could profile people that would help.

But the situation is crazy.

They can't stop someone who has been to pakistan 10 times in 2 years and ask if they have been going to terrorist training camps.

But stoping someone who ahs been to thailand 4 times in a year and asking what they do there is okay?

[facer]

Hot sweety..smelly.. falang..tee shirt..kaky shorts..tevas

perverted look to him..

drool coming down off his chin...

 

I don't know what this means? I need to look in my handbook to see

 

 

Hi tigerstail, i feel you raise a valid point, in western society and society in general to some extent, many people use attire to project a certain image and to create an impression. The problem for one looking for behavioural clues is that this situation can be very easily manipulated in the same way as words. However non-verbal gestural leakage, gestural patterns and facial micro and macro expressions are the result of the autonomous nervous system triggering action potentials that manifest themselves physiologically. These are extremely difficult to manipulate.

 

Allow me to give you a rudimentary example you can try at home...imagine you are talking to an old school friend about your schooldays together and you casually ask him if he misses his school days and he replies that he doesn't have any regrets and that he is glad its all over. As he is talking he briefly wipes the skin under his right eye with his index finger, there is no reason why you would notice this tiny gesture and even if you did you would probably think he was removing a bit of dust from his face...he ISN'T, the gesture is in fact what theorists would term an autonomous tell and it casts an entirely different light on his true feelings. although he says he doesn't miss his school days some of the cerebral association areas in his brain know otherwise and the autonomous nervous system creates a physical urge (similar to an itch, but not quite the same) to wipe away an imaginary tear ! in a similar way to crying. Look out for this gesture, with a bit of practice it is easy to spot. When you see this action remember what you were talking about, i guarantee it will be upsetting in some way. Watch other people, but more importantly catch yourself doing it, because you definitely will ! Now let me elaborate, the subject matter may well be profoundly upsetting but it could also be quite trivial, i catch myself wiping tears away when i've missed a goal playing fifa on the playstation ! in addition a minority of people are either consciously (pro. actors/ non-verbal students) or subconsciously (usually sensitive individuals who intuitively grasp the meaning without realising it) aware of this action and the index finger usually wipes the eyebrow or the side of the nose to throw off or blunt the signal. These gestures are termed gestural manipulators (as opposed to gestural emblems, batons or illustrators, plus the pattern in which we use these gesture types is also revealing particularly in terms of deception.)

 

anyway try it, you will not be disappointed, and come back and let me know how you fare...

Edited May 31, 2010 by facer

[facer]

sorry to bore you folks but i find the subject matter fascinating, let me explain...just as a birdwatcher watches birds, so the people watcher watches people, but he is a student of human behaviour, not a voyeur. To the people watcher the way an elderly gentleman interacts with a companion is just as exciting as the way a young girl crosses her legs. He is a field observer of human actions, and his field is everywhere...at the bus stop, the supermarket, the airport, the street corner, the dinner party and the football match. Wherever people behave the people watcher has something to learn...something about his fellow man or women and ultimately about himself. we may observe a certain type of behaviour or a special way in which behaviour develops, originates or changes. To know these concepts makes it possible to recognise certain patterns of behaviour much more clearly the next time they are encountered. Body language is about actions, about how actions become gestures and about how gestures transmit messages. Frequently the human animal is unaware of his actions, which makes them all the more revealing. He concentrates so hard on his words that he seems to forget that his movements, postures and expressions are telling their own story.

 

It must be remembered that learning these concepts is not about dominating ones companions by reading their secret thoughts, a bird watcher does not study birds in order to shoot them, in the same way the people watcher does not take unfair advantage of his special understanding of human behaviour, his primary aim is a deeper understanding of human interactions, and thus himself. for to understand the significance of others actions is to gain insight into his problems, to see what lies behind his conduct and perhaps to forgive it rather than attacking it.

 

anyway if anybody reading would like to know more, let me know and i will be happy to oblige...

[SP1]

sorry to bore you folks but i find the subject matter fascinating,

 

anyway if anybody reading would like to know more, let me know and i will be happy to oblige...

Interesting subject for sure, like you say any understanding of these things can benefit us all in personal development.