TSA changes quota requirements for passenger behavior-detection programs

TSA employees in Boston and Detroit face two additional training hours than the rest of the nation. Photo by Inha Leex Hale.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration, responding to complaints of racial profiling by airport behavior-detection officers, has hired a consultant and will alter performance measures to deter the practice.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose department includes the TSA, said in an interview yesterday that she’s retained an expert to work with the department’s civil rights section.

John Halinski, the TSA’s deputy administrator, said in a separate interview that the agency will change the program’s metrics, so airport managers won’t think they have to meet quotas for enforcement actions unrelated to terrorism.