Behavioural Analysis Conference 2023 / Day 3

Wrapping up my summary for those who couldn’t attend this year’s BA at Prague Airport, here again, are my favourites for the last day of the conference. There were many more interesting talks and discussions these three days in Prague, so please don’t be upset when you miss some names; this is a list of presentations or subjects of particular interest to me. You can consult the complete list of this year’s conference, as well as foregone years, on www.behaviouralanalysis.com

Day three focussed on the subjects of questioning, insider threats and aviation security and started with a presentation thru Zoom by?David Keatley?from Australia. David spoke of different rapport-building techniques to enhance the interviewing process. His talk leaned on prior work done by?Abbie Maro?o about non-verbal mimicry, which imitates the nonverbal behaviour of a conversational partner while interacting. There is also verbal mirroring and psychological mirroring.

These “tools” are essential because increased mimicry or mirroring (when done well) increases “closeness” to the other conversation partner and enhances the willingness to disclose details. David cited research on incoming emergency calls, where a victim’s injury is reported and where the ‘Linguistic Disposition’ of the caller is analysed. What are the callers’ feelings or sentiments toward the injured victims: positive or negative? Knowing the Linguistic Disposition can help law enforcement choose the right psychological way to hold the mirror: “Don’t you think the victim deserved better?” or “I think I understand why you did it”.

Next up was?Thomas S. Karat from The Netherlands. He stood up for Linguistic Course Analysis, in which you exactly listen to what has been said: the pragmatic (what is said?), the implied and the so-called speech acts. Every slide of his Powerpoint was a?“Fundgrube”, providing inroads to dive deeper into many exciting things. There was no way to copy all the information during the talk, so I’m anxiously looking forward to the conference notes of this lecture.

He argued for more attention to so-called “Function Words”, little words that “glue a conversation together” and spoke of acts of omission, which are an active attempt to deceive, not a passive process! Regrettably, most academic research focuses on the truth/lie dichotomy, which does not exist. More focus should be given to omission in speech analysis.

Prof. Galit Nahari , Head of the Department of Criminology, Bar-Ilan University, Israel, presented her research into the real-time verifiability of investigative interviewing, citing conversations that profilers/behaviour detection officers at the airport have with passengers as an example.

Liars generally face a dilemma: they want to stick as near the truth as possible but want to give only a few details. So, therefore they provide non-unverifiable details. Enter the ‘Verifiability Approach’, which looks at the ratio of verifiable versus non-unverifiable details and only focuses on the content of the speech, bypassing perceived body language or tone of voice.

Elsine Van Os, CEO of Signpost Six, The Netherlands, zoomed out for her contribution by looking at the current geopolitical situation and its implications for insider threats. She told us that societal stressors (like the cost of living prices, globalisation, ongoing geopolitical conflicts, external pressure from criminal organisations or state-sponsored espionage) lead to disconnection, loneliness and isolation of many a colleague. The result can be acting out (taking action against, e.g. a company) and acting in (self-hurt, suicide). She urged us all to have an open mind, be open to dissent in the office space and complicate matters instead of staying fixed on simplified answers.

The focus of the presentation of?Karel Lehmert, Head of CBRNe Forensic Sampling Laboratory, Czech Republic, was suicidal and homicidal pilots. A phenomenon already older than half a century. He argued that it is more appropriate to talk of “suicide/homicide” instead of “extended suicide”. He provided a long list of S/H incidents (not only captains but also crew and passengers) in civil aviation:

Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 (1964), Connellan Airways (1977), Barra do Gar?as air disaster (1980), Japan Air Lines Flight 350 (1982), Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 (1987), Royal Air Maroc Flight 630 (1994), Air Botswana ATR 42 crash (1999), China Northern Airlines Flight 6136 (2002), LAM Mozambique Airlines Flight 470 (2013), and Germanwings Flight 9525 (2015). Lately, suicidal airline incidents have killed more passengers than terrorist attacks.

María Carmen Feijoo Fernández?from Spain, Chair of the ECAC Behaviour Detection Study Group, gave an overview of the quest for scientific proof in behavioural analysis, breaking up this concept into baselining, observation and interviewing. She also called for attention to future research in this field and to train agents to articulate better recognised?“suspicious behaviour”?in individuals whom they want to question further, detain, etc. In the discussion, there was also a call for more standardised vocabulary and terminology.

Retelling us the ins and outs of two major incidents during his tenure as ELAL station chief at Prague Airport,?Samuel Juchtman?(now with ACTS-Aviation Security, USA) shared with us “real stories from the front line”. I’m not listing any details here since I don’t want to make some the wiser. The two incidents were a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) found just outside the airport perimeter and a passenger at the ELAL check-in with many suspicious signs. Let’s say that the gut feeling was not good...

Both incidents occurred years ago, but his presentation clearly showed the swift (and sometimes unpopular) decisions a supervisor or station manager needs to make in daily operations at an airport.

Zdeněk Truhlá??of Prague Airport ended the conference with an overview of the landside protection of his airport, using a sensible mix of technology, dedicated security personnel and awareness of all airport staff. Zdeněk and his team kindly took many participants on a behind-the-scenes tour at Prague Airport, focusing on the security operation—a fitting end to Behavioural Analysis 2023.

Thank you so much,?Philip Baum and the team from the UK and “extras” from the Czech Republic, for your energy and passion in organising this event. Special thanks to the amazing?Gurbir Chahal?and?Anna Schreckenberg. Signing off for now, back to the old Roman city of Utrecht in the Netherlands to prepare for... some training classes.

?au!

PS. The same team organises?Dispax World?(this year, also at Prague Airport), the 4th International Conference on unruly airline passenger behaviour. Conference dates: October 11 to 12, 2023. See www.dispax.world

Post Scriptum: See you all at the Behavioural Analysis Conference 2024 in London, 21-23th of May.