TSA spotting new security technique

Reports suggest that the Transport Security Administration (TSA) is preparing to introduce a new security initiative based around passengers' behavioral patterns.

Screening Passengers by Observational Techniques, or SPOT, as it will be known, has been trialed at several airports in the northeast over the past few years and the TSA is now ready to enlist its help on a wider scale.
TSA Director Kip Hawley told Reuters that the program would be expanded after the summer travel season was over but would not identify precisely which airports would be participating.

"We have been very pleased with its effectiveness," Hawley said. "We expect it to be an important part of our security going forward."
The system uses professionals to observe passengers and look for unusual or anxious behavioral mannerisms as they stand in line at security checks. The TSA is careful to point out that random checks will not be racially or ethnically motivated.

It will not replace the traditional checks of luggage and metal detectors but is intended to be a supplement to them. Officials said that it would be a less cumbersome system than the current government "watch lists" and security databases used by the TSA.