Loss of Privacy

Numerous agencies and privacy advocated have shown that, since its inception, SPOT and its BDOs isn’t useful at all, yet the government keeps throwing money at it. A new report from the DHS Inspector General concludes that it is utterly useless and a waste of taxpayer money. After hiring 2,800 full-time staff and spending an estimated $878 million since FY 2007, the TSA SPOT program still doesn’t work.

SPOT (which stands for Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques) is the program that places “Behavior Detection Officers” (BDOs) near airport security lines, where by intrusively chatting with fliers, they will supposedly be able to detect “something amiss” that might suggest a passenger is planning a terrorist attack.

At root, the core problem with this program (leaving aside legal objections) is the same as the core problem with polygraphs and other “lie detection” schemes: the relationship between an individual’s internal state of mind, and their external physical behavior or signs, is simply not a consistent or reliable one.

…because the SPOT program is based on searching for supposed “signs of terrorism” that are vague and commonplace (while terrorism is anything but commonplace), officers can basically pick anyone they want for extra screening. Surprise, surprise, that often devolves into crude racial profiling…

We saw this happen at Boston, Newark, and Honolulu’s airports.

Criticisms in the report include:

TSA cannot ensure that passengers at U.S. airports are screened objectively, show that the program is cost-effective, or reasonably justify the program’s expansion.

TSA cannot demonstrate that BDOs are screening passengers in a uniform manner to identify potentially high-risk individuals.

The program collects data from referral reports that provide measurable outputs of specific activities. However, these outputs do not provide a measure of program effectiveness, because TSA has not established why these outputs support desired outcomes. For example, TSA documents the identification of prohibited items, undeclared currency, and illegal aliens, but the SPOT program has not defined how these outputs support achieving the SPOT program goals.

Basically, the TSA SPOT program is not cost-effective, can’t screen everyone in the same objective manner, and cannot pick out high-risk individuals. Though it may have identified prohibited items, undeclared currency, and illegal aliens, that isn’t what their mandate is supposed to be. It’s supposed to be catching terrorists, something the TSA has never done.

The IG also reported confused relations between the SPOT program and the law enforcement officers (LEOs) that the BDOs (not being sworn officers themselves) call in when. . . well, we’re not really sure when. Law enforcement officers at some airports “said that they had not received clear information about BDO duties and why referrals from BDOs warranted law enforcement response.” The TSA reported that officers “did not question approximately 13 percent of referred passengers.” One wonders if this is a sign of eye-rolling exasperation on the part of the police officers. We do know that law enforcement “referrals” appear to be wildly inconsistent, with TSA data indicating just 430 referrals from Chicago’s giant O’Hare airport in a recent 16-month period, for example, yet 6,981 at the smaller airport in Orlando, Florida.

A 2010 Government Accountability Office study similarly found the SPOT program had no scientific basis, wasn’t subject to independent expert review and had not undergone cost/benefit analysis, so the latest findings are not a surprise. The new report was ordered by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D, Miss.), who had previously tried to add an amendment defunding the program to Homeland Security appropriations legislation, but it was not adopted. Let’s hope the latest findings will lead to an end to this misguided program.

This horrendous, and useless, program needs to be defunded and demolished. Rep. Thompson should try again because all the SPOT program does is waste taxpayer money. It doesn’t actually do anything else.

Miguel Quinones turned himself into the police after a warrant for his arrest was issued.

A video and more than 1,000 images of child pornography were found on Quinones’ personal laptop computer and three thumb drives stored in his airport locker, Jones said.

TSA suspended Quinones without pay in January after being told he was under investigation. He was terminated Wednesday,

The TSA, naturally, issued their standard statement to the public.

“TSA will continue to hold our employees to the highest ethical standards,” Davis said in a statement, “and we will move swiftly and decisively to end the federal careers of any employee who engages in illegal activity.”

Quinones has been arraigned and is awaiting a trial date.

The TSA finally joins the Empire in their fight against the Rebel Alliance by detaining Star Wars actor Peter Mayhew.

If, for some reason, you can’t view the video because you don’t live in the United States, try one of the following browser addons.

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Suzanne Steiner is a breast cancer survivor who uses a prosthesis. She thought that the TSA would treat her respectfully when she passed through security at the San Antonio International Airport. Instead, she had her prosthesis pulled out, embarrassing her in front of other travelers.

In early May, after passing through the full body scanner at the airport, Steiner was pulled to the side by a female TSA agent.

“She started to search me, only my right breast,” Steiner said. “And I said, ‘Oh that’s alright, that’s my prosthesis, I’ve had a mastectomy.’

“So she starts searching more, and I thought, ‘what the heck is all that about?’.”

Steiner said the agent never acknowledged her or told her what she was doing. Instead, according to Steiner, the agent proceeded to pull the prosthesis out of her bra, about an inch away from her body.

Steiner said when she tried to file a complaint that day, TSA agents were insensitive. One agent told her, “you set off an alarm, you should expect to be checked”. Already embarrassed, Steiner said that made the situation even worse.

If the TSA did not inform her as to why she was being pulled aside or what they were going to do, then they were violated the terms of their mandate. Once Ms. Steiner notified them that it was a breast prosthesis, the female TSA worker should have informed Ms. Steiner of her right to have a pat down in private.

The TSA gave their usual response.

TSA officers are trained and expected to perform screening methods in a dignified and respectful manner at all times. We work to make our screening procedures as minimally invasive as possible while providing the highest level of security for the traveling public.

Complaints about pat down procedures are taken seriously and thoroughly investigated. We regret that this passenger had an unpleasant experience and have discussed her concerns with her directly.

TSA encourages passengers with medical issues or disabilities to visit http://www.tsa.gov before traveling for information about procedures. Passengers can also call the TSA Cares Help Line at 855-787-2227 in advance of travel with questions or to help prepare for screening.

What they really wanted to say is that they don’t care, but they have to say something to make it look like they care and that they’ll actually do something to fix the problem.

It should come as no surprise by now that no one seems to be able to do their jobs in relation to anything security related in the United States. Yet, it keeps happening.

FJC Security takes care of security at JFK, yet they can’t seem to find qualified workers that can stay awake during their shifts.

One FJC worker who allegedly found it difficult to keep his eyes open was Suhas Harite, 68. Jackson claims to have caught him sleeping twice while assigned to a remote post not far from Jamaica Bay.

The post is about 150 yards from where a stranded jet skier last August breached a 6-foot-tall fence that was part of the vaunted $100 million Perimeter Intrusion Detection System bought by the Port Authority from defense contractor Raytheon.

JFK has beefed up security in that area, including four posts from FJC to monitor it, yet no one seems to be able to stay awake and do the job. If that’s true, then what’s the point of paying someone to sit in a parked car and sleep during their shift? Why not have them actually patrol the area? Walking around is a sure bet to keep your employees awake and they might actually see something. So why, exactly do they let these people keep their jobs?

“If you fire someone, you have to do paperwork, hire someone new and place others on overtime until you can find somebody else, so a lot of managers wouldn’t want that placed on their shoulders,” he said.

“I’d be told, ‘Jackson, why do you have to make more work for us by exposing these people for sleeping? You should just wake them up and give them warnings.’ ”

The Port Authority, however, takes a different view on the situation. When shown the pictures and video they had this to say.

On Friday, the PA rapped the three FJC employees caught sleeping in photos made available to The Post, banning them from working at PA facilities.

FJC has several contracts set to expire in 2015 and the PA has said that past performance is taken into consideration in renewing contracts.