Logan Airport in Boston was the first U.S. airport to implement the use of controversial fully body scanners. It was also the first to X-Ray every piece of checked luggage. Now, a decade removed from 9/11, airport security at Logan is using the city’s college population to test a new safety procedure known as the “Chat Down”.
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Boston, home to over 50 colleges and universities, sees a huge influx of airport traffic when out of state students are traveling between home and school, making them the perfect guinea pigs for the new “Chat Down” procedure.
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The “Chat Down” is designed to help TSA agents recognize behavioral clues that are indicative of lying by prompting them with a series of questions lasting no longer than 40 seconds. So far, 132,000 passengers have been involved in the experimental method and only 10 participants have been handed over to authorities on drug possession suspicions.
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Rachel McMonagle, a Boston College senior who experienced a “Chat Down” told USA Today “I truly had no idea it was part of a security procedure. I thought the TSA worker was simply being really friendly and enjoyed the chat. He noticed I was wearing a Phillies sweatshirt and started to ask me about the playoff game being played in Philadelphia.”
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Logan airport will continue to conduct the “Chat Downs”, which remain in what is known as the trail stage. If the procedure is considered successful at the end of the trail stage, the method will be expanded and adopted at other national airports.Â