Alert: Metro Police Officers Are Using New Behavioral Profiling

[Liberty Belle]

Alert: Metro Police Officers Are Using New Behavioral Profiling

SecurityProNews | Staff Writer
2005-01-10


The Washington DC Metro Police are ramping up their security in anticipation of the upcoming Presidential Inaugura.

Not everyone agrees with their strategy, "You can't use this very subjective sense of who's suspicious as a substitute for what the law would otherwise require . . . such as a basis for suspicion that someone is engaged in criminal conduct," commented John Reinstein, legal director for the ACLU of Massachusetts. . .

http://www.securitypronews.com/worldsecurity/ws_news/spn-59-20050110AlertMetropoliceofficersareusingnewbehavioralprofiling.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[FlemingsGhost]

5. You feeling alright?

Hoping for violence, huh?

[purduejake]

2. I wonder how many protestors will fit their profile.

I think this has some merit because we have to protect our transportation systems, but I fear it will be misused by this administration since anybody can be labeled as a enemy combatant without oversight.

[merwin]

3. I'm gonna behave ultra-weird, and then sue when they arrest me :)

GWB hasn't done tort reform yet has he?

[Historic NY]

4. Don't act too weird you could end up in a mental health ward....for

screening, etc......

[Liberty Belle]

6. or in the new gulag they're building.

They'll probably lock all the protesters in there and throw away the key--after they send Gonzalez' torture squad to entertain you, of course.

[noonwitch]

11. Where you end up will depend upon your medical insurance

If you act crazy and have good insurance, you'll end up in a hospital. If you don't have insurance, you'll end up in jail.

[Liberty Belle]

28. Catch-22 from BushCo.

[Trillo]

7. Oh . . . the irony.

"Officers are now targeting people who seem to be looking around the station more than other passengers, avoid eye contact or seem to be loitering in stations."

Years ago I remember reading M$M articles about the need to be aware of one's surroundings (looking around) and that also cautioned against eye contact with strangers. Now that CorpoGov media has educated the populace, the governmental arm of CorpoGov will target those who follow that advice.

[NYC]

29. Except for the loitering part, those are New York rules.

If visitors came from out of town, I would tell them not to make eye contact with strangers, and always look around to see who is near them, and make sure they have an exit.

"Officers are now targeting people who seem to be looking around the station more than other passengers, avoid eye contact or seem to be loitering in stations."

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. avoid eye contact is a category?

Holy Key-rist. Where I'm from, it was a sign of respect and also body language that says, "No thank you, I don't want trouble and I don't want whatever you're selling."

That is just a very broad human characteristic to label suspicious.

[amazona]

14. yeah it's scary

Where I'm from, it was a sign of respect and also body language that says, "No thank you, I don't want trouble and I don't want whatever you're selling."



As a high-functioning autistic, I don't make eye contact. To me, it seems rude and unnatural, almost a threat. Animals in the wild often don't make eye contact unless they are thinking about jumping and eating the contactee! So I like to think that being "shifty-eyed" as one of my friends teased me is just a link to my old animal brain.

But my gut tells me, right or wrong, that a woman who walks around making eye contact willy-nilly is just asking for trouble and stress, and who needs that.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[Rose Siding]

15. Yeah, that's wrong

But my gut tells me, right or wrong, that a woman who walks around making eye contact willy-nilly is just asking for trouble and stress, and who needs that.

I hope you reveal that if you're ever on a jury.

[amazona]

16. I don't understand

I hope you reveal that if you're ever on a jury.

That's pretty cryptic. Can I get excused from jury duty because I don't make eye contact?

My experience is, if a certain type of guy even THINKS you're making eye contact, even if you're looking at something else, he will come over and try to hit on me. Who needs the hassle? Since I'm pretty ordinary looking, I have to assume that I'm not the only woman in America who has experienced this. To certain people, we are the prey. Best to do what you can to protect yourself and not draw attention of the predator.

I have heard the opposite argument made, that you can sometimes scare off the predator by looking at him HARD right in the face as if memorizing his features, but since I can't look do that -- I really cannot make myself just stare in someone's face, I just can't -- then I'm not going to test it.

You just do the best you can with what you've got.

I don't mind the extra screening I've gotten at the airport, although it is a wicked waste if the reason is because I don't make eye contact. I don't think high-functioning autistics as a class, or even as individuals, have ever bombed anyone.

But at least there is a logical argument that some people might be shifty-eyed and refuse to make eye contact because they are nervous. Usually only good people are nervous, and sociopaths are pretty blithe, but it is not beyond that realm of possibility that a terrorist could be nervous if he really believes in what he is doing. So I accept the argument that I should be (as I have been) screened somewhat extra at the airport.

But I'm not getting the leap from "we have to screen shifty-eyed people a little extra" which at least seems marginally logical to..."shifty-eyed people who can't make eye contact are unfit for jury service."

I'm afraid you'll have to spell that one out for me! Perhaps I am just completely missing your point.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[TrogL]

17. I should chime in here, I drive store security people nuts

They use this type of profiling. They see me walking around a store and immediately start following me. Here's why.

• I'm an Aspie. I don't make eye contact. Get over it.
  
• If I break rule #1 and make eye contact, I will continue that contact until it reaches "staring". Often I'm lip-reading. Get over it.
  
• I'm interested in stuff related to security. I do security. Hence I'm gonna be lookin' at your cameras and alarm systems. Get over it.
  
• I hate sales people. The whole sales socialization ritual makes we wanna puke. If I need help I will ask for it. Leave me alone and I will buy something. Bug me and I'll snarl at you. Get over it.
  

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. LOL!

Just one question. What's an Aspie?

[sendero]

24. I can...

... definitely relate to about 80% of your bullet points :)

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. I'm with you Amazona

How odd that you can serve on a jury if you think that no eye contact is a bad thing, but someone questions you if you conclude the opposite?

For the record, when I was single and went to happy hours after work, it was the eye contact that told me that some guy was interested. If I didn't like the guy, I'd quickly look away. If I liked the guy, I'd hold the gaze. The guy who gave me the best eye contact, was the guy I married.

[Rose Siding]

20. I should have been more clear.

I reacted to the part of your remark about a woman "asking for trouble". That prejudice is sometimes used surreptitiously against a victim in a rape defense- For example, if she had on a short skirt it was her fault she was raped; she was "asking for trouble"

[BiggJawn]

26. Well...

"My experience is, if a certain type of guy even THINKS you're making eye contact, even if you're looking at something else, he will come over and try to hit on me. "

So tell him to get the fuck away or you will kick him in the testicles. If he doesn't take the "hint", then follow through.

"Since I'm pretty ordinary looking, I have to assume that I'm not the only woman in America who has experienced this. To certain people, we are the prey. Best to do what you can to protect yourself and not draw attention of the predator."

I'm sorry, but I find that remark sexist and rather offensive. I'm not a "predator" just because I have external sex plumbing, OK? After having 2 marriages go on the rocks because my wives couldn't keep their panties up, I could make ALL kinds of generalizations about women, but I've been told that is not nice or fair.

[Redstone]

25. You're not the only one.

"As a high-functioning autistic, I don't make eye contact."

I didn't know that was a characteristic of people with your condition. Thanks for the education; I always like to learn something I hadn't known before.

Also: Many American Indians such as myself (please, please don't call me a "native american") are taught that looking people in the eye (even during conversation) is bad manners; staring at people is considered rude.

I've gotten no end of aggro from people about this, even after I explain it.

The (well-meaning) people at my son's elementary school were concerned that he didn't look people in the eye when talking to them until I told them that it was cultural.

Redstone

[The Backlash Cometh]

27. Also with the Indians of some South and Central American cultures.

And, I believe with traditional Japanese.

[Bridget Burke]

9. Since they "care" so much--are they working the Inauguration without pay?

Bush has told DC to use Homeland Security funds to cover security expenses. Surely, the police will wish to donate their services.....

[bemildred]

10. Your average DC cop has about as much intution as a doughnut. nt

[KinkyDem]

12. Yes, but ...

these are Metro Police, not DC Police.

DC has effectively three Police Forces with jurisdiction, The DC PD, The Metro PD (who also have jurisdiction in MD and VA) and FPS (but I guess they have jurisdiction everywhere). DC cops = dumb like rocks, metro cops = not as dumb as you might think.

[bemildred]

13. I am speaking of the geographic area, not the legal entity.

And I don't see that being "smart rocks" is much of an improvement.

[buddysmellgood]

21. Don't try to meet anyone in the metro. Don't be new in town either.

Don't drop and lose anything and expect to be able to look for it. What a joke. This is just and excuse to profile based on anything and then claim someone literally was looking at them the wrong way.

[Logansquare]

22. Here's some sample "suspicous behaviors" profiled

by Logan behavior pattern recognition training:

"Potentially suspicious behavior could include wearing heavy clothes on a hot day, sweating on a cool day, loitering in the terminal without luggage, or even using a pay phone. Law enforcement officers who notice any irregular behavior are trained to then ask simple questions about their identity and look for an innocent explanation that could clear up any confusion."

from:
Federal marshals to use behavior pattern recognition at Logan
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2004-01-27-logan-security_x.htm

[Massachusetts]

23. We still have OUR RIGHTS

Be sure you KNOW them and USE them!:mad: