A new level of security imposed by the TSA at the Boston Logan International Airport will be enforced Tuesday. Behavior Detection officers (BDOs) will ask a few questions and look for anomalies in every traveler passing through Logan’s Terminal A, TSA spokesperson Greg Soule told msnbc.com. “Officers are trained to look for specific behaviors that would indicate if an individual is acting suspicious and has a fear of discovery,” he said.
This pilot program is “modeled after a number of behavior-detection programs used by other security and law-enforcement agencies, but tailored to TSA’s specific mission.” The officers will receive both classroom and on-the-job training.
The agency “will evaluate how the program will impact security, screening operations and passenger through-put,” Soule said. If deemed a success, the pilot program could expand to other airports by this fall.
Its success is predetermined by the fact that security can look people in the eye and communicate with them instead of inspecting them through a machine.
TSA informed the flying public of the pilot program with signs in front of the affected airport checkpoint and through a local media event held on Monday.