I caught a blurb on the news this morning about a new TSA program to help them identify people acting suspiciously while standing in the security line at the airport. Teams of screeners have been trained to look for signs of “stress, fear and deception”. From an article on the program:

The teams have referred more than 40,000 people for extra screening since January 2006. Of those passengers, nearly 300 were arrested on charges including carrying concealed weapons and drug trafficking. TSA officials will not say whether the screeners have helped nab potential terrorists, but they say terrorists and other lawbreakers exhibit the same behavioral clues.

A success rate of 0.75%! Great work, guys. Let’s roll that out across the nation, privacy and sanity be damned!

When asked what techniques were being used for this identification, according to the news report on tv, officials cited security concerns and refused to elaborate. In essence, “trust big brother, we’ll look out for you”.

I’ll be going to the airport in six hours. Let’s hope I don’t wrinkle my nose wrong, sweat, avoid eye contact, look at people, shuffle my feet, or worry if that pair of fingernail clippers in my pocket is on the prohibited items list.