Page 10 - Customs Today Winter1984-OCR

file system is much more likely to be picked up by secondary. Our stats tell us that.
Commissioner:
Well, you see, here in Washing ton we have the benefit of every
theoretical thought on any subject but the benefit of no practical
thoughts on anything. That's why you guys are here.
Inspector Hauk:
Before we went to the Red/Green system in Kennedy, we implemented the CET team. We
found that whenever the CET team was work
ing in an area, the regular inspectors would work harder to try to show us up. It was a posi
tive situation because it led to more seizures.
What about the automatic
passport reader in Chicago?
Inspector Eisenhauer:
It seems to work quite well. We get some
passports that seem to have some kind of coating on them that keeps the machine from reading
them accurately. Also, some of them seem to be a little too large for the slides on the machine. We
may have to read as much as 10 percent of them manually because the machine won't accept them.
Commissioner:
Someone told me that inspec
tors don't look at every passport in
great detail anyway. If that's true, the inspectors, by putting the pass
ports in the machine, are actually
looking at the passports more care fully than they ever did before. And doesn't this slow down the proc
essing?
Inspector Eisenhauer:
I do check passports quite throughly, and I believe most inspectors do. And. with the pass
port reader, you can use the time you used to
spend typing the names into TECS to ask a few more questions. Maybe those extra questions will
help you turn up a seizure. Commissioner:
We only have automatic pass
port readers at Chicago and Dulles. Have any of you others seen them?
For that matter have any of you visited any of the other Red/Green
systems? Would you think it possi ble to duplicate, say, the Houston
system in Miami?
Inspector Bauman;
I think so. After all, the success of the
Red/Green system is built on the rover system. With inspectors trained in behavioral analysis, trained to look at people, not their luggage, you should be able to set up a Red/Green anywhere
or exchange one system for another. Commissioner:
You've all said that narcotic seizures are up under the Red/
Green system, what about other things, merchandise, for instance?
Inspector Eisenhauer:
In Chicago we're picking up more mer
chandise, too. We're catching it in the red lane when people under-declare.
Commissioner:
So they're not trying to use the
green lane to go around us?
Inspector Eisenhauer:
There may be some that are doing that, but
we're looking for them in green, too. Commissioner:
Inspector Henry:
Probably most would bring in merchan dise, but some would bring in narcotics. Commissioner:
The frequent traveler could
bring in a lot of small but valuable items for his friends.
Inspector Cook:
I don't think that's so likely to happen in
Houston. There, the passengers can't see into either the red or green inspectional areas until
they turn a corner and enter one of them. When
they enter the green area, they find six inspec tional tables and two or three inspectors. You
can see the look of surprise on their faces. They
know, if they 're carrying something, they 're in trouble. I just don't think we're going to miss
much with the Red/Green in Houston.
8
What about
feel that some merchandise smug
glers are going through your green lane?
Inspector Cook:
Well, from August 1981 to July 1982 we did a survey on the one-stop and the dual-
channel. At the time, we found we were down 46,000 passengers, but we had collected over $44,000 in additional penalties. And our cur rency seizures were up more than four times to $3 million.
Commissioner:
Well, now that Red/Green seems to be working so well, what's
the next modification we can make in passenger processing?
Inspector Henry (New York):
I think it's too early to say that Red/Green
is the final solution. We're going through an
evolutionary period right now, and I think we've discovered some good things about the
Red/Green. I also think we've discovered some bad things.
Commissioner:
What are the bad things? I
haven't heard about those. Inspector Henry:
Well, several of us have pointed out that we are getting away from baggage examination
and getting into more of this type of selectivity.
This is good to some degree. What I'm con
cerned about is that maybe we're conditioning
passengers to expect that it's a good chance they can walk right through Customs if they look
innocent.
Commissioner:
So you think we're taking the
pressure off the passengers and that they are not going to give
themselves away by looking nervous?
Inspector Henry:
Well, yes, I think they '11 probably be more relaxed. Some of the people I work with see this as a possible source of trouble down the road with people who are frequent travelers. Commissioner:
What would you think they'd bring in?
Houston,
do you
Starting the discussion, the Commissioner discussed the beginning of Red/Green with Inspector Vance
Cook, who works at Houston Intercontinental Airport where the rapid passenger processing system was first tested.
Intercontinental Airport Inspector Vance Cook tells the Commissioner Customs can process nearly 1,000
passengers an hour using Red/Green, as opposed to 300 per hour before. He adds diet Red/Green has also
helped Customs make more seizures.