Travelers at Port Columbus know they have to watch what they say at the security checkpoint - no jokes about bombs or terrorists.
What they might not know is that the close scrutiny doesn't begin or end there.
For the past 13 months, "behavior-detection officers" have been walking the airport's terminal and concourses, observing people's faces, mannerisms and even to whom they speak while passing the time at their gate. The program is called SPOT, Screening of Passengers by Observation Technique.
The officers, specially trained Transportation Security Administration agents, strike up casual conversations with passengers who arouse their suspicion, but also on a random basis. They identify themselves and might even ask to search a traveler's carry-on bag.
"If checkpoints were the only thing we had, it would be a tremendous weakness," said Don Barker, TSA federal security director at Port Columbus.
"Layered security is an attempt to trip you up through a whole sequence of events."
Behavior-detection officers carry ID badges but don't always wear the standard TSA uniform with patches and blue shirt. Sometimes, it's a casual outfit that changes week to week. That's so terrorists don't recognize a security pattern, Barker said.
Ali Mohamed Ally, 31, said he didn't have any problem recognizing the officers at Port Columbus on Feb. 21. He filed a complaint with the TSA accusing the officers of harassing and racially profiling him after following him from the checkpoint to his gate.
When he sat down and began talking to another black man, several officers gathered around them, said Ally, a Somali immigrant who became a U.S. citizen nine years ago. One officer peeked at the other man's laptop screen, Ally said.
As passengers lined up at the gate to board, Ally said, he was asked to step out of line. An agent removed the contents of his carry-on bag, examined his passport and questioned him, asking how recently he had been to Iraq or Afghanistan, what religion he practiced and how often he prays, Ally said.
When he loudly objected, he said, the TSA officers called airport police, who ushered Ally away from the gate.
"Any person who looks like an immigrant, you take for a terrorist," Ally said. "My community normally doesn't come forward, but it happens to my community all the time."
Airport police said they took no action against Ally, and they helped him arrange another flight to Des Moines, Iowa, where he now lives.
Barker disputed Ally's account, although TSA refused to release its written reports of passenger screenings.
"Allegations that we asked religious-based or ethnic-based questions never happened," he said. "That's the thing that gets the most people kicked out of the program - any bias."
Racial profiling is forbidden, he added.
The TSA refuses to list the behaviors that warrant contact by behavior-detection officers. Barker said Ally could have displayed verbal or nonverbal cues that officers recognized as potentially dangerous.
Peter Swire, an Ohio State University law professor and privacy adviser to the Clinton administration, said he's skeptical of behavior detection.
"This is an unproven technique," Swire said. "It can easily tip over into unjustified racial profiling."
TSA officers don't have arrest authority and can't compel passengers to answer questions or submit to searches. However, those who don't agree to the search are not permitted to board their plane, TSA spokesman Jon Allen said.
Between Oct. 1, 2007, and Sept. 30, 2008, officers asked 98,711 passengers nationwide to undergo additional screening, according to the TSA.
Of that number, 9,836 were referred to police and 807 were arrested. Most arrests are for fake identification.
The behavior-detection-officers program, started at Boston's Logan Airport in 2003, has fielded fewer than 10complaints, Allen said.
More than 2,400 of the officers are working at 161 airports, in addition to 43,000 security screeners at 450 airports.
dgebolys@dispatch.com
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