Jaunted

The part about looking at people who "complain about TSA security" comes from the criteria that behavior profilers use to detect suspicious people. It turns out that if you get into a TSA agent's face and start yelling about how much you hate airport security, they're going to pull you aside and ask you why. Now we're not exactly known for being sympathetic to the TSA, but that seems perfectly reasonable to us. It's especially plausible since "frustration with security" was the exact criteria that officials used to pull the 20th hijacker out of line on 9/11.

The actual news, buried somewhere in the middle of the CNN article, is that TSA is expanding its behavior profiling program by about 5%. There are 3,000 behavior detection officers now, President Obama wants another 175 in 2012, and $1.2 billion will be spent on the program over the next 5 years. The reason—it turns out, unsurprisingly—is that behavior profiling is more effective than TSA's weird obsession with random screening.

The numbers in the article are just preliminary, but 86 travelers were incorrectly flagged as "high risk" by behavior detection officers vs. 794 travelers by random screeners. In terms of getting it right, behavior detection officers were 4.5x more likely to catch travelers carrying prohibited items or fraudulent documents.

So expect to have more agents in airports trying to pick out fidgeting passengers, and—just as a reminder—don't launch into public speeches about how much you resent not being allowed to bring whatever you want into an airplane cabin. No matter how good your oratory is, the airport just isn't the right place to have a debate.

[Photo: TSA]