TSA - Behavior Detection Officers: Does the system work?

USA Today article questions whether the TSA Behavior Detection Officer program is working.  So far only 1% of the individuals stopped by the BDO's have been arrested for some criminal activity.
(Read the article TSA's 'behavior detection' leads to few arrests )

My question is how do you know what you have "stopped" merely by the existence of the program.  Just like police patrol units, how do you prove they are an effective deterrent. There is no way to measure the crimes that "didn't" happen.

I say give this program some more time to develop.  Find some REAL measures of performance and don't trash the program based solely on "perception" and bias. 

I'm interested in some of your observations.

Stan
"The Lie Guy®"
www.TheLieGuy.com

Comments

[Dennis Chaquette]

The BDO Program is new. BDO's will get better and better over time. Any new system takes a while for the people to train to higher and higher standards. Since this is a new process, BDO's will need time to hone their new skills. You have to keep in mind that there may only be 1 terrorist for every 1,000,000 people with fake I.D.'s or drugs on their possesion. The job of the BDO is to stop the terrorist from getting on the plane, and finding what the terrorist is trying to bring onto the plane. Rome wasnt built in a day, give the BDO's a chance to sharpen and hone their new skills. It is a very intelligent system and will prove to be effective.

[Eddie in Kentucky]

I agree, give the program some more time. I find it very interesting that 160,000 people have been questioned, 15,000 have been questioned by the police and 1,266 have been arrest, mostly for "Fake ID Charges". Hummmm.... why would anyone need a "Fake ID"? I look at this program the same way I look at omni presents of a police officer, how can you provide solid statics for crimes that were not committed. Uniformed officers in department stores deter shoplifting but how many shoplifters were detered because of the uniformed officer? I think the BDO's have some of the the same issues, how many people that wish to do harm to us or our country decided not to attempt to get on a flight because of the BDO's? If the answer is at least one, I say the program is a success, especially if I'm on that particular flight.

[Eddie]

I agree, give the program some more time. I find it interesting that 160,000 people have been questioned, 15,000 were questioned by the police and 1,266 were arrested by the police. Most were arrested for "Fake ID's". Hummmm....Why would anyone need to posses a "Fake ID"? I look at this program the same way I look at the omni presents of a police officer. How do you meassure the number of crimes the police deter? Having the BDO's in the airports is another deterrent for individuals that threaten our safety or wish to do harm to our country.

[Cellar]

Isn't this basically what customs agents have been doing since there was a customs service? Only now the TSA started with hiring swathes of arrogant, incompetent goons and needs an expensive TLAed programme to bring them up to speed on the job.

I still say catching terrorists before they do harm is part of what intelligence services are supposed to do, not something you keep on inventing new highly public annoy-the-citizen schemes for, much less keep on inventing and granting new ``powers'', databases, and other 1984 gear aimed at the entire populace for.