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CNN Live At Daybreak

Profiling Suggested as Way to Tighten Up Airport Security

Aired November 08, 2001 - 07:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's turn now to the issue of homeland security. As you may - the FAA halted operations for a small New York airline yesterday for what's being called improper passenger screening. The FAA ordered Jet Blue Airlines - one of the airliners, to return to the terminal at JFK International Airport here in New York for about 90 minutes yesterday. About 350 people were affected when an FAA inspector spotted what it called improper screening at that particular terminal.

Now as you may remember last weekend, a 27-year old man apparently passed through the security systems in Chicago at O'Hare with no less than nine knives, a stun gun, and a can of mace. The suspect Subash Gurung faces a court hearing today. Critics of airline security have - say not nearly has changed in the weeks following the September 11th attacks. As Congress remains deadlocked on an airline security bill, airport officials are themselves trying to tighten security.

Among the proposed solutions is profiling and as CNN's Kathleen Koch reports, that has some critics up in arms.

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KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A security checkpoint at Chicago's O'Hare Airport missed the knives and stun gun a man carried in his bag there Saturday, but an aviation industry group says that airline computers did flag Subash Gurung as a potential threat, prompting airline employees to search his bags at the gate and find the weapons. It's an example of passenger profiling and airlines say it's a key security tool.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is what we need to be looking for, is who is that individual who is a potential threat to all of the other passengers.

KOCH: The computer-assistant passenger prescreening system flags passengers who, among other things, buy one-way tickets, pay wish cash, or have an unusual travel history. Before September 11th passengers who were identified had their checked baggage screened by explosive detection equipment. Now in addition a passenger's carry-on luggage is hand-searched and he or she can be questioned and detained. Another change, the FBI and law enforcement have given the airlines access to their watch list of suspects. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As soon as the ticket agent puts in your name and terms of your reservation and if it's already in the - in the machine, then they - the machine will not even spit out a boarding pass.

KOCH: Mineta insists to avoid discrimination the system does not factor in a person's ethnicity. Some security experts believe it should.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not racial profiling. It's ethnicity profiling that says we're concerned about people from a particular region of the world. They tend to be young; they tend to be male; and we ought to spend most of our time looking for them.

KOCH: Civil liberties advocates, though, insist there are rising numbers of complaints from passengers who say they've been unfairly targeted. Such critics warn profiling opens not closes security gaps.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Profiles are notorious (INAUDIBLE) close-up. Who knows what the next terrorist will appear as - it could be a grandmother; it could be a student; we just don't know.

KOCH: But in the current environment many expect the profiling system to become more, not less, intrusive raising concerns that privacy will be increasingly sacrificed for security.

Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.

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