TSA launches behavior detection program at Logan By SDN Staff - 08.02.2011 BOSTON—The Transportation Security Administration started using an Israeli-influenced behavioral detection program today at Logan International Airport. TSA screeners at Logan will begin on-the-job training today by posing simple questions to passengers at Terminal A, such as “Where are you traveling today?”, according to a report from the Boston Globe. The screeners will be trained to watch the responses for suspicious behavior or any signs of nefarious intent. “We’re not looking for the answers necessarily,” George Naccara, TSA federal security director at Logan, told the Globe. “We’re instead gauging the reaction, the response, to the question.” The pilot program at Logan, which will last 60 days, is based on the TSA’s existing Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques program, which has deployed more than 3,000 behavior detection officers at airports across the country, according to CNN. But, whereas existing SPOT officers have only observed passengers, the TSA screeners at Logan will be engaging passengers in brief conversations. The new layer of security is used extensively at airports in Israel, CNN reported. Critics of the program say it will lead to profiling, but a TSA spokesperson told CNN that “officers are specifically trained to keep questions purposeful and related to detecting a passenger's intent. This program is in no way related to passengers' race or ethnicity.”