Face Dances

According to an article in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, the TSA is profiling people by asking them questions and watching their expressions. The idea is that this is better than racial profiling. They can look at the way people answer questions and ask them more questions from there.

This is something that scares me. There are lots of reason people lie when they are being asked questions. There are lots of reasons to not tell the truth. I know more than enough people that will lie just because they are being asked.

Maccario emphasized that the program takes into account the typical stress many of us experience when traveling, especially during the holidays.

Ordinary people who are feeling anxious are "much more open with their body movements and their facial expressions as compared to an operational terrorist (thinking) 'I've got to defeat security,' " Maccario said. "We're looking for behavior indicators that show a certain level of stress, fear or anxiety above and beyond that shown by an anxious member of the traveling public."

Once I was driving from Vancouver BC, to Seattle WA. I crossed the boarder on I-5. I was nervous going though customs. I was not nervous because I was doing anything illegal. I was nervous because I did not know all the rules. I might have been doing something illegal without knowing it. The customs agent searched my car and was hoping to find something. He was very disappointed to find nothing.

I know they have to look for people who are trying to do harm, but I still feel like they are shooting in the dark and claiming victory when they catch something my accident. I do not think this makes for good policy.

Look at the claim:

Since January 2006, behavior-detection officers have referred about 70,000 people for secondary screening, Maccario said. Of those, about 600 to 700 were arrested on a variety of charges, including possession of drugs, weapons violations and outstanding warrants.

What worries me is that this does not have a footnote. If I was a newspaper I would not print this claim without verification. There has been too much lying by the government to think other wise. I also want to know how much this program costs. We need to know what kind of bang for our buck we are getting and what programs are not getting funded.