Passengers arriving on flights to Detroit may soon experience a “chat-down” from TSA agents, a new security technique which aims to weed out suspicious passengers through a series of conversational questions.

During “chat-downs,” agents may ask select passengers at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport about their travel plans or certain items they are carrying. Suspicious answers may lead to more thorough questioning.

The technique is an expansion of the widely-used Screening Passengers by Observation Technique (also known as SPOT), which has been in place at nearly 160 airports since 2007.

Despite concerns, the TSA says the one minute screenings will not lead to longer waits at checkpoints.

The administration estimates that nearly 100,000 travelers have been interviewed since the pilot program kicked off in Boston back in August.

Source: Businessweek

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