Page 8 - Customs Today Winter1984-OCR

Commissioner's Round Table:
Red/Green Passenger Inspection System
In this, the first Commissioner's Round Table, Mr. von Raab had as his guests the following
Inspectors: Mark Eisenhauer, O'Hare Airport, Chicago; Vincent Hauk and John Henry, JFK Air port, New York; Vance Cook, Houston Intercon
tinental Airport; and John Casale and Bob Bauman
of Miami International Airport. The topic of the day was the Red/Green systems in use in their respective
airports.
Commissioner:
Just after I was sworn in as
Commissioner, we started to plan for Red/Green. A lot of study went into what we eventually did, and at the time there were many who ar
gued on both sides of the issue. Of course, we didn't want a system like Amsterdam, where you walk through the green lane and out the door to a taxi stand. We wanted some control. I felt we could adopt a system that wouldn't hold up the vast majority of travelers, who we know are honest, but would still
give us control over those passing
through Customs.
Houston was the first place to
have Red/Green. Don Kelly volun teered to be first. He set up a
system at the airport that they were all excited about. When I went
down to see it, they even presented me with a copy of a book they had
put together on the system. I
brought the book back to Gene Mach and asked him why we
couldn't do this all over the country. I thought that the most inter
esting aspect of the Houston system was that it was largely
designed by the inspectors them selves. They made the changes for
the Houston Airport, for the kinds of facility they have there and the kind of flights and the level of risk.
We learned from that experi ence that we would have to design each system differently, that each would have to be designed around the situation existing at that loca tion. We also got off the idea that we have to define the inspector's
every activity, minute by minute. We feel we should give the respon
sibility to the inspector. We should also pay less attention to the
honest traveler and more attention to the potential criminals.
Well, the Red/Green system has been operating in Houston for
about 15 months. How is it going?
Inspector Cook (Houston):
Right now we're up to processing almost 1,000 passengers an hour.
Commissioner:
Compared to, what was it, 600 or 700?
Inspector Cook:
No, 300. The Customs area in Houston
Airport was built for handling 300 passengers an hour. We're processing more than three times
as many passengers an hour, and the inspectors are enjoying it more. They like the variety,
working the primary area, the red area, the
green, roving. And best of all, we have almost doubled our number of significant seizures this
year.
Commissioner:
That's about all you could ask
of the Red/Green system: we're
able to do much more work, and
we're able to do it much better. If I
recall correctly, it was an inspector
in Houston who told me the inspec
tor's enforcement potential would
rise if his attention could be fo
cused on looking for criminal activi
ty, shifting away from routine ad ministrative matters, away from
rubber-stamping. All activities that divert your attention from looking
for the crooks.
Is that feeling general? Do you
all feel this way?
Inspector Cook:
Yes. But it took training. Probably the
hardest thing was to get most primary inspectors to forget about rubber-stamping passports and
performing other administrative functions and to concentrate on watching passengers, studying their behavior. They know the high-risk flights, and they know the profiles they're looking for.
Commissioner:
Now, New York and Miami de
veloped their Red/Green systems at the same time but independently of
each other, is that correct? You both came up with similar systems
involving the use of rovers at the baggage carousels.
How effective have these rov
ing inspectors been at the baggage carousels?
Inspector Hauk (New York):
I'm with the CET team at JFK and
we've been doing quite well. Last month we got about 9 pounds of heroin, 10-1/2 pounds of
cocaine, quite a lot of marijuana, and we made several currency seizures. We work in plain
clothes, and I know this helps. We found that if we are out on the floor in uniform, people stop
us to ask directions to the rest rooms, or "where do I catch my flight to Cleveland?" and things like that. Being asked a lot of questions when
you're trying to concentrate on profiles breaks
your train of thought. If you 're in plain clothes, no one bothers you.
Commissioner:
Do people show the same re
spect if you do not have your uniform?
Inspector Hauk:
Well, we identify ourselves, show them the
badge. Occasionally, they will try and walk
away. This is usually a foreigner who doesn 't understand. But we just have to stop them.
Commissioner:
But doesn't New York also
have uniformed inspectors at the carousels?
Inspector Hauk:
Yes. We have both red and green inspec
tors. The green inspectors concentrate on process
ing the people who shouldn 't be delayed, family
groups. This thins out the crowds a lot. Then the red inspectors can handle the people who need
our attention.
Commissioner:
What about Miami, are your
roving inspectors uniformed? Inspector Casale (Miami):
Yes. Our whole force of rovers is in uni
form. And we run into the same problem with people asking us all kinds of questions and direc
tions. You do lose your concentration.