"Passenger profiling resurfaces as way to boost airline security"

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Idea resurfaces as way to boost airline security
By Ken Kaye 
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel 

 
The alleged plot to blow up U.S. airliners has prompted aviation security
officials to call for passenger profiling to identify potential terrorists,
even though it remains a politically incorrect taboo.

Although airport security has become more sophisticated with explosive and
metal detection machines, no level of technology can thwart determined
terrorists, said Stephen Luckey, special security adviser to the Air Line
Pilots Association.
 
What might, he said, is "a culture change," where passengers would allow the
government to delve into their travel history, purchasing records and other
personal information by way of a powerful, computerized, pre-screening
program, initiated with a ticket purchase.

"People will have to invest a small amount of intrusion into their privacy
to obtain the amount of security they desire," said Luckey, a pioneer in
computerizing passenger screening and a retired Northwest Airlines captain.
"It will require the P word: profiling."

The renewed push for profiling comes while passengers are being prohibited
from placing liquids or gels in carry-on items, a ban that will be enforced
indefinitely -- but might be lifted within a few weeks, officials said.

"We don't believe the changes will be permanent, but they will remain in
place until further notice," Christopher White, spokesman for the
Transportation Security Administration, said Friday.

Luckey, of Kalispell, Mont., and other security experts say a high level of
security isn't possible without profiling.

He noted people would not be identified based on how they look, but rather
how they behave. For instance, a passenger who has traveled frequently to
the Middle East might arouse suspicion, but that person may or may not be
Middle Eastern, he said.

"You can be white, purple or green; it doesn't matter how you look," he
said.

Luckey helped develop the earliest version of the pre-screening program
currently in use. It crosschecks passengers' names against those on a few
no-fly lists, a function he called "primitive."

The version now under development, called Secure Flight, would be overseen
by the Transportation Security Administration and crosscheck names against
more than 20 lists.

However, Secure Flight has been under fire since it was unveiled in 2003.
The American Civil Liberties Union said it could be too intrusive into the
average person's privacy.

More recently, in February, the Government Accountability Office warned the
program might be ineffective because it has no clear objective.

"A general fear of terrorism should not force us to forgo our basic rights,"
Brandon Hensler, director of communications for the ACLU Florida office,
said Friday.

Hensler said by drawing on many databases, the Secure Flight program could
be "fraught with errors," endangering innocent people.

"We are absolutely for security," he said. "But you have to compare that
with the privacy you would be forgoing."

Luckey countered: "Civil liberties are extremely important. But we have to
realize that we don't have the luxury of what we had in our lives prior to
9-11."

Marvin Badler, a Boynton Beach aviation security consultant, added, "We have
to find the bad guy before he gets to the airport."

The TSA says it employs a multi-level approach to inspect passengers and the
items they carry. It has placed explosive-detection machines at major
airports. It also has installed high-tech "puffer" machines that detect
explosive particles on a person.

The agency also has a surveillance program in which law enforcement
officials in plain clothes monitor the behavior of passengers at airports.

The TSA had hoped to launch a nationwide Registered Traveler program,
allowing passengers to funnel quickly through security after paying a fee to
receive a background check. But the program, which has been operating on an
experimental basis in Orlando, has been put on hold because the TSA wants
more input from airports.

Meanwhile, the TSA continues to explore new technologies, said White, the
agency spokesman. 

"We're always interested in employing new technologies at the checkpoint,"
he said.

Jim Cannady, an associate professor at the Nova Southeastern University
graduate school of computer and information science, said the more levels of
security, the better.

"There is no magic bullet," said Cannady, a former Atlanta police officer.
"No one technology is going to solve the problem."

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