American Airlines CEO suggests need for more “profiling” in aviation security

American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey suggested Tuesday that TSA needs to do more "behavioral profiling" to separate "the potential bad guys from the non-bad guys." Arpey made the remark during a speech that generally complimented TSA's work since the agency's creation after the Sept. 11 terror attacks:

"The TSA is doing a good job under extremely tough circumstances. But it's clear to us that in the years and decades to come, there are going to be more and more flights, more and more people flying, and we are not going to be able to manage that level of activity handling security the way we do today," Arpey told attendees at the FAA's Annual Aviation Forecast Conference in Washington. "Common sense tells us we will need to use technology much more aggressively, and we need to use more aggressive behavioral profiling -- separating the potential bad guys from the non-bad guys."

It should be noted that other aviation officials, as well as lawmakers, have argued for more targeted scanning of passengers whose actions or behavior suggests they may pose a threat. The Nexis news database shows a couple of stories that report Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the International Air Transport Association, said this in late January. "Instead of looking for bad things -- nail clippers and rogue bottles of shampoo -- security systems, we need to focus on finding bad people," Bisignani said.

Of course, critics say any type of profiling could become racial or ethnic profiling, with security personnel reverting to stereotypes to pick out passengers who they think look like terrorists.

In remarks to reporters afterward, Arpey didn't elaborate on his "profiling" comment. Instead, he repeated frequent industry criticism of the security fees that are charged to carriers and passengers to fund TSA. "Why airlines are uniquely singled out to bear the burden of the war on terrorism still escapes me," Arpey said. "No other industry is being asked to have their customers pay a tax to defend our freedom. Part of the reason that there is not money in the industry for infrastructure, for ATC, is we're paying for all this other stuff."

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