Sociology

"I don't mind of people carry pocket knives and semi-harmless objects aboard aircrafts. What we do mind is if another wave of bad guys gets on an airplane and takes it over," says John Mica, the chairman of the House aviation subcommittee. He believes there is too much emphasis on keeping "dangerous" items off an airplane, rather than dangerous people. Mica is pushing for the government to start using "behavior pattern recognition" in airports. One such airport using this technique already is the Boston Logan International Airport, where two of the hijacked planes on 9/11 took off from. The staff there has been specially trained to be able to recognize unusual behavior patterns in people to identify a potential terrorist plot. Some things they look for are odd or suspicious behavior, heavy clothing on a hot day, loitering without luggage, and people observing security measures. The staff pays attention to passengers and if they meet a certain number of criteria, police are called in to question the suspect. However, there are some concerns about using behavior pattern recognition. Opposers say this technique can lead to unlawful search and seizures and even racial profiling. On the other hand, privacy advocates say this technique is better than the government's proposed plan to do a computer back round check of all travelers. Personally, I think that behavior pattern recognition can be useful in trying to identify potential terrorists and dangerous people; however, I think that it can be easy to misread people's behavior. Also, I think when you are looking for specific signs and indicators, it may be easy look into these too much and think a person is guilty when they really are doing nothing wrong. It is "better to be safe than sorry," but I agree with the opposition in the article that it can lead to searching too many innocent people and alienating them.

Would functionalist and conflict theorists think that behavior pattern recognition is good because it is, in a sense, concerned with the greater good of the people, even at the expense of the individual?