L’Efficacia del Metodo ETaC di Paul Ekman nel proteggere gli “obiettivi sensibili”

A report presented to the United States House of Representatives in 2011 on the effectiveness of the “Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques” (SPOT) programme at airports proved that the performance of trained staff is significantly higher than their untrained counterparts.

Trained staff were in fact nine times more effective on average, but up to fifty times more effective in some cases, in correctly identifying ‘miscreants’ among travellers.

To such an extent that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has requested $236.9 million in funding to train 3,336 Behavioural Detection Officers (BDOs) and create 350 new positions to further enhance the SPOT Programme in public transport security, both at high-risk airports and by extending the service to smaller airports. The Behavioural Detection Officer (BDO) is an additional security resource at airports, being a non-invasive tool to identify possible terrorists or criminals (see DHS: Department of Homeland Security).

A funding request of this magnitude came as a result of the report “Behavioural Science and Security” that Dr. Paul Ekman addressed the US House of Representatives on 6 April 2011, presenting evidence in support of the initiative to recruit and train Border Patrol Officers according to his own method in order to identify high-risk passengers. This followed the eight-year collaboration between Dr. Ekman and TSA to develop and improve the SPOT Programme.

According to a Department of Homeland Security official, “BDOs are more effective at identifying high-risk passengers than random screening measures” (See Defense Daily, 2011).
Larry Willis, a programme manager in DHS and supervisor of the study, told the subcommittee: “A study by the American Institute for Research (AIR), conducted on data collected at airports by both spot-checks and BDOs, shows that personnel trained in techniques designed to observe precise behavioural indicators are on average NINE TIMES more likely to identify a high-risk traveller than spot checks.

TSA started the SPOT Programme in 2003 to provide additional tools in passenger screening. The BDOs are trained to look for certain clues in people that could indicate ill intentions, of a terrorist or criminal nature.
Willis also confirmed that, in an 11-month study, 72,000 travellers were stopped for spot checks, compared to just over 23,000 stopped by BDOs for additional checks, and that of the 72,000, 9 were arrested, compared to 151 of the 23,000.

The BDOs are trained to provide additional tools in the screening of passengers.

Willis concludes by stating that: “These results indicate that, by our criteria, the SPOT Programme is significantly more accurate in identifying high-risk travellers than spot checks.”