Archive for the ‘Screening’ Category

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Researchers identify genetic defect that leaves people fingerprintless

By alisa in Criminal Records, Screening at October 7th, 2011 | No comments

Fingerprints are a valuable identification tool for everything from crime detection to international travel. But what happens when the tips of our fingers are missing those distinctive patterns of ridges?

It’s not the premise for a science fiction movie, but a real-life condition known as adermatoglyphia. It’s also known as “Immigration Delay Disease,” because affected individuals experience difficulty in passing through security or checkpoints where fingerprint identification is required. Now Prof. Eli Sprecher from Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center has identified the genetic mutation responsible for this unusual condition.
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Video: Traveler ‘Outraged’ After Hair Checked for Bombs

By Dawn in Screening, Security at September 29th, 2011 | No comments

Isis Brantley was stopped by TSA in the Atlanta Airport while going through security on her way to an American Airlines flight to Dallas. Isis, a hairstylist, was rocking her signature haircut. Brantley became angry at the TSA after agents when they began searching her hair for a bomb.

“I just heard these voices saying, ‘Hey you, hey you, ma’am, stop. Stop — the lady with the hair, you,” Brantley told the Dallas KXAS radio station. She then claims that TSA agents stopped her so they could “check for weapons.” A female agent started “digging in her scalp.”

Brantley, it should be noted, has not cut her hair since she was 12 (she is now 53).

Last week, when she told the press that the TSA at Atlanta’s Airport stopped her to search in her Afro for bombs and she said, “Why would I hide a bomb in my afro?”

The TSA released a statement to the news station saying, “Additional screening may be required for clothing, headwear or hair where prohibited items could be hidden. This passenger left the checkpoint prior to the completion of the screening process. She was offered but refused private screening.”

But Brantley says that “they have never done that to me before.” A TSA agent apologized to her regardless.

View video@msnbc

 

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UK Researchers Use Thermal Imaging to Detect Liars

By alisa in Interrogation, Lie Detection, Screening at September 16th, 2011 | No comments

Experiments on the new lie detector being developed by the University of Bradford in the north of England are still at an early stage but have, so far, yielded some promising results.

“We have developed a system by which we can analyze people’s faces for detecting lies in an interview scenario,” said professor Hassan Ugail, director of the Center for Visual Computing at the university.

The thermal imaging camera, Ugail explains, captures variations in facial temperature in response to questioning.

“When someone is making something up on the spot, brain activity usually changes and you can detect this through the thermal camera,” Ugail said.
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Weird smuggling incidents reported by TSA

By alisa in Crime, Screening, Security at September 16th, 2011 | No comments

Within days of each other, the TSA reported two separate incidents involving wildlife trafficking in the U.S.

On Aug. 26, a woman heading to board a China-bound flight from the Los Angeles International Airport was arrested by Fish and Wildlife Service officers for smuggling two parrots. TSA patted her down and bound the birds wrapped in tube socks, tapped to her chest. She was charged with smuggling goods and for the exportation of an endangered species.

This woman’s attempt was just one day after a potential “Snakes on a Plane” incident at the Miami International Airport. A man traveling from Brazil attempted to board a flight with seven reptiles stuffed in his pants. The TSA caught him after they discovered suspicious items when he walked through an Advanced Imaging Technology screening machine.Seven exotic snakes and three tortoises were found wrapped in nylons, stuffed in his pants. Fish and Wildlife Service officers arrested him and he was charged with a felony of violating the Lacey Act, prohibiting unlawful transport of fish, wildlife and plants. Read the full article »

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