Course Description

Criminal profiling at major transportation centers (airports, train stations, bus stations and ports of entry) has been developing since the nineteen seventies. Profiling was initiated as a response to drug organizations utilizing transportation centers to facilitate their crimes. Techniques were developed and continuously refined to identify passengers who were at risk of being involved in criminal activity. These techniques apply to potential terrorists as well. The recent arrest and conviction of an Al Queda cell leader by interdiction unit officers on a Greyhound bus in Greensboro, NC, attests to this applicability.

Terrorist organizations are forced, by the nature of their organizational goals, to utilize transportation centers to move people, money and material. While traveling through these centers, the terrorists are at their most vulnerable to detection and arrest.

Criminal profiling at transportation centers rests upon this premise: criminals (which include terrorists) utilizing public transportation systems are forced, by virtue of the clandestine nature of their pursuits, to act and travel in ways that can be distinguished from that of legitimate travelers. This class focuses on utilizing the tools available at transportation centers, coupled with known criminal characteristics, to interdict terrorists and their criminal brethren.

This course is designed for those working in airports, bus stations, train stations, package, freight squads and border facilities. After attending this seminar, an individual Agent/Detective will be totally prepared to begin work at any interdiction assignment profiling terrorists, drug couriers and criminals. Covered in this course are the basics of setting up an office, selecting personnel and organizing a task force. Emphasis will be on the prevention of criminal organizations and terrorists from utilizing transportation centers to facilitate their crimes. Terrorism, Courier Characteristics, Civil Liability and Interviewing are all topics discussed in depth. Computer analysis will be explained, along with the newest investigation techniques. An analysis of the World Trade Center disaster and the resulting arrests by interdiction units will be analyzed.