BDOs SPOT More Than Just Opportunities at TSA
News & Happenings
May 8, 2007
BDOs Dave Bolduc (left) and Chris Davis at a Logan
checkpoint.
At Boston's Logan International Airport, Behavior Detection Officers (BDOs) David Bolduc and John Ferragamo, using behavioral cues, grew suspicious of a passenger who turned out to be carrying large – and illegal – amounts of prescription medication, more than $20,000 in cash and a passport belonging to another person.
At Washington Dulles International, BDO Steven Markman received information that a man had kidnapped a child and was possibly headed to the airport. Ten minutes later, Markman and two of his behavior detection colleagues spotted the man and child and kept them in sight until police arrived.
Both incidents illustrate not only the BDOs' ability to identify passengers who may represent a threat, but how the Career Progression Program has helped transportation security officers further their careers with merit-based promotions to become behavior detection officers.
"SPOT [Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques] training elevated my level of suspicion toward the passenger," Bolduc said of the incident at Logan. He became a TSO in June 2004 and earlier this year joined the behavior recognition team.
Begun in June 2003, SPOT – which focuses on behavior and not physical characteristics – is expected to be deployed to the nation's 40 busiest airports by the end of this year. To date, there have been thousands of referrals to law enforcement and for additional screening.
More than 500 behavior detection officers are expected to be trained by the end of 2008 – many of them by Tony Mills, a former corrections officer who works at Portland (Maine) International Airport and travels the country as a behavior recognition instructor.
"My experience as a corrections officer helped me develop a sense of when someone was attempting to be deceptive," said Mills, who joined TSA in 2002 and SPOT in 2004.
Those selected for the Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques program undergo four days of classroom instruction in behavior observation and analysis, and 24 hours of on-the-job training in an airport security checkpoint environment.
Illegal immigrants have been identified through SPOT. So was a passenger carrying surveillance photos of high-risk buildings and bridges. Another more obvious intercept was of a man wearing several layers of clothing with wires extending from his sleeves to a black box he was carrying. And, in 2005 at Logan, several passengers sitting separately were seen making clandestine signs to one another, while pretending not to know each other. They later admitted to being paid $5,000 to travel between airports and observe security.
