Privacy Digest

TSA boosts 'behavior detection,' mulls other changes: Via CNN.com

This holiday season, it's still shoes off and liquids out at airport security, but changes may be on the way to part of this routine, and agents will be watching much more than the contents of your carry-on.

In the coming months, the government expects to revisit its rule for the amount of liquids that may be brought aboard planes, while boosting the number of behavior detection officers deployed at checkpoints across the country.

More than 2,000 are already on the job, and the program is growing every day, said Christopher White, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration.

"What the officers are looking for are physiological signs that cannot be manipulated that indicate stress, fear or deception," White said. "We find bad people everyday with behavior detection officers."

The specially trained agents, who work in teams, establish a baseline of behavior and then search for people who rise above that level, he added.

The TSA has been taking steps to reduce stress for all travelers at security, such as adding special family lanes, to make it easier for the officers to spot passengers who are acting suspiciously.

"By calming the checkpoint down, it makes people with potential hostile intent really stand out," White said.

"If there's a shark fin in a rough sea, it's impossible to see. If there's a shark fin in a lake, it's very easy to see."

Read Original Article (Via CNN.com .)