CNN has obtained a list of behavioral indicators that TSA personnel are supposed to use to identify “high risk” passengers who should receive extra scrutiny at airport security. Among the indicators is arrogance or “contempt” toward TSA screening. From CNN:
Many of the indicators, as characterized in open government reports, are behaviors and appearances that may be indicative of stress, fear or deception. None of them, as the TSA has long said, refer to or suggest race, religion or ethnicity.
But one addresses passengers’ attitudes towards security, and how they express those attitudes.
It reads: “Very arrogant and expresses contempt against airport passenger procedures.”
TSA officials declined to comment on the list of indicators, but said that no single indicator, taken by itself, is ever used to identify travelers as potentially high-risk passengers. Travelers must exhibit several indicators before behavior detection officers steer them to more thorough screening.