The watchers are being watched: around 75 uniformed Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners assigned to “behavior detection” duties at Newark Airport have been temporarily removed from their posts and sent for “retraining” following an internal audit, officials of the agency told NEWSWEEK. The officials, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information, said that among the issues raised by the audit were whether specially trained “behavior detection officers” (BDOs) were sometimes being used for duties other than behavioral screening and whether they were being given sufficient break time. While the regular screeners are absent from their assignments, 75 fill-in screeners will be brought into Newark from elsewhere around the country. (TSA is the part of the Department of Homeland Security responsible for security at airports and on airliners, among other things.)

The officials described the Newark audit, and the decision to reassign the 75 BDOs, as a “routine” measure intended to ensure quality and efficiency on the part of agency screeners, who became key players in governmental efforts to improve airline security in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The agency made no public announcement of the Newark audit or resulting reassignments. The audit was conducted on Nov. 5, the officials said, and the retraining of the screeners affected by it is expected to last nine working days.

Agency officials said that specially trained BDO screeners, wearing the same uniforms as other TSA screeners, have been assigned to “behavior detection” duties for the last three years as part of a TSA program inspired by the tough security measures that Israeli authorities have used to screen air travelers for years. According to the officials, BDOs hang out with other TSA screeners either behind or in front of the X-ray machines and metal detectors that TSA uses to check passengers and their baggage for suspicious items. Using a set of specially designed criteria—which the government says is classified—BDO’s are supposed to notice people who are acting weird or like they are trying to hide something. “They’re looking for people who are trying to evade detection,” said one of the officials. If a BDO spots someone acting suspiciously, the person is then pulled over for further questioning or inspection by TSA officers. The TSA officials insisted to NEWSWEEK that race and ethnicity play no role whatsoever in the criteria used by BDO officers to spot suspicious persons. The methodology used by BDOs features prominently in Lie to Me, a Fox TV drama about a psychologist/detective.

Officials maintain that the BDO program has successfully spotted potentially dangerous individuals in the past. One example was the capture of a person who tried to enter the Orlando Airport with pipe-bomb parts but was detected and stopped by BDO-trained screeners before he even got inside the airport building. The TSA website also includes a page describing how BDOs at Newark Airport helped to thwart an attempted kidnapping in May 2007. Sterling Payne, a DHS spokesperson, told NEWSWEEK: “At the request of TSA's Federal Security Director at Newark, TSA conducted a routine assessment of the airport's Behavior Detection program to ensure the program was being implemented according to procedure. As a result of the assessment, TSA is currently providing refresher training for the behavior detection officers (BDOs) and program managers assigned to Newark. Additional BDOs from TSA's National Deployment Force have been deployed to the airport to allow for continued operations." Payne added: "TSA has great confidence in the behavior detection (BDO) program and is dedicated to ensuring it runs effectively in every airport.”