From Seattle Times:

At Boston's Logan International Airport, behavior-detection officers are striking up casual conversations with passengers about their travels, looking for signs of unusual behavior.
And there and at five other major airports nationwide, the Transportation Security Administration — TSA — is testing a program that would mean fewer pat-downs for children, even allowing them in certain cases to forgo removing their shoes.
The target of public scorn and ridicule in recent years, the federal agency that screens flight-bound passengers and their belongings is trying new ways to identify high-risk fliers while making airport checkpoints less of a hassle for everyone else.
On a stopover in Seattle Friday, TSA administrator John Pistole said the agency, established after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, wants to move away from a one-size-fits all approach to security.
Over the last decade, he said, the U.S. has faced new security threats at its airports — from the likes of the shoe bomber and the underwear bomber to those who would surgically implant explosives in themselves — with each incident forcing the agency to reassess its systems.
"The challenges we face are significant in terms of what terrorists are willing to do to design and conceal bombs," Pistole said.
It's a message he wants to convey to those concerned about the increasingly invasive reach of the agency at the nation's airport checkpoints.
"We need your patience because it is a personal process," Pistole said. "There are not too many federal agencies that have that type of personal engagement with people."
As Pistole spoke on Friday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, just feet from a checkpoint, passengers prepared to go through screening, removing belts and shoes and taking laptops from computer bags.
Each year more than 31 million people go through the airport, where TSA operates 14 full-body scanners — 500 at its airports nationwide.
About 28 percent of passengers at Sea-Tac go through the scanners, with the remainder going through traditional metal detectors.
Nationwide, the machines have picked up ceramic weapons and large quantities of cash, Pistole said, articles that regular metal-detection equipment would not have been able to detect.
Pistole noted that he, too, has to go through screening and recounted that after doing so on a recent flight he searched high and low for his driver's license, only to discover once he'd boarded the plane that he had put the ID in his shoes at the checkpoint and left it there.
The agency already employs behavior-detection officers at most major airports in the country, including Sea-Tac. The pilot program in Boston takes what they do a step further, with officers asking passengers basic questions such as whether they are traveling with anyone and whether they were in the city for business or pleasure.
Those whose responses raise suspicion are referred for more extensive screening.
The program has been criticized for being ripe for racial profiling and Pistole said at Logan a few people have refused to answer questions, making them eligible for additional screening.
Many of these test programs will eventually roll out to airports across the country, recalibrated for any glitches detected in the test process, Pistole said.
There have been calls in recent years for standardized training for TSA officers. Pistole said while he favors a sort of central training academy, funding makes that impossible right now.
Last month, the TSA fired 36 officers and placed 12 others on leave for failing to do proper screening on checked bags.
He also wants the public to remember that TSA is "a new agency — less than 10 years old." he said.
"As it matures, we are able to bring in processes and protocols. Anytime there's misconduct that rises to a significant level, we'll take action."