Ever catch yourself yawning and fidgeting at the airport? Don’t be surprised if you get corralled for some extra-vigorous pat-downs. And good luck if they find a GPS on you. You just branded yourself as a likely terrorist suspect, according to a 92-point TSA checklist recently obtained by “The Intercept.”
The list is grouped into different categories—“fear factors,” “deception factors”—with a point system attached. Do you appear to be confused or disoriented? That will be 3 points. Are you repeatedly patting your upper body with your hands, possibly to make sure you didn’t forget your cell phone/wallet/passport/any number of other things travelers constantly check? Also 3 points!
“Exaggerated yawning” and “facial flushing” during the checkpoint are worth 1 point each. Because travelers are definitely never tired and embarrassed when having their groins man-handled by a stranger! Totally suspicious.
Complaining about the screening process will, obviously, put you on Terror Watch, as well as whistling or arriving late to your flight. “Wearing improper attire for location” is 2 points—although what constitutes “improper,” particularly in an airport, where anything from pajamas to a business suit generally goes, is left undefined.
If you are sufficiently suspicious, the checklist advises agents to pull you aside and search for “unusual items,” like almanacs, a GPS (a GPS is “unusual” for travelers?) or prepaid calling cards and cell phones. They are also to check for “signs of deception,” like “exaggerated yawning” (again) and “excessive throat clearing.”
“No single behavior alone will cause a traveler to be referred to additional screening or will result in a call to a law enforcement officer (LEO),” the TSA told “The Intercept” in a statement. “Officers are trained and audited to ensure referrals for additional screening are based only on observable behaviors and not race or ethnicity.”
There is, however, a rigorous point system for when agents automatically notify a law enforcement officer—two or more “signs of deception,” for example, would qualify—so, “’Adam’s Apple’ jump” + “fast eye blink rate.”
There are, however, some things that can also subtract points—if you appear to be part of a married couple over the ages of 55, for example, or are a woman over the age of 55 or a man over 65.
The TSA’s Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques program has been widely criticized as inefficient pseudoscience. From National Journal‘s report:
SPOT has been dogged with accusations that it is based on pseudoscience and promotes racial and ethnic profiling among the some 3,000 TSA agents tasked with observing unusual behavior. Two years ago, a review by the Government Accountability Office found no clear evidence that the protocol used by SPOT-trained agents to detect terrorists was any better than random selection. The GAO report recommended that Congress halt funding for the program.
