Software to Randomize Police Operations at LAX

owlgorithm writes "A USC research group has created software, named ARMOR (Assistant for Randomized Monitoring over Routes), that will be used at LAX Airport to make security and police operations there truly unpredictable. The software records the locations of routine, random vehicle checkpoints and canine searches at the airport, and police provide data on possible terrorist targets, based in part on recent security breaches or suspicious activity. The software then makes random decisions (which are thankfully based on calculated probabilities of terrorist attacks) and tells the police where to dispatch and when. The most notable detail is that terrorists who had access to ARMOR still wouldn't be able to predict the searches."

Comments

It's working so well

[BadAnalogyGuy]

I have a rock that keeps tigers away.

Re:It's working so well

[flaming error]

> calculated probabilities of terrorist attacks

To get good statistics I think you need a statistically significant sample size. And at LAX I believe the entire data set of terrorist activity is some fellow who went berzerk one fourth of July. Perhaps they are using all airport-related terrorist attacks across the USA, which would include I believe the above berzerker, four related incidents on 9/11, and an MIT student with a homemade name badge full of blinkenlights.

Re:It's working so well

[MrNaz]

More to the point:

"The software then makes random decisions (which are thankfully based on calculated probabilities of terrorist attacks) and tells the police where to dispatch and when."

Does that mean that, given that the US's rate of deaths from acts of terrorism is so low as to be negligible, it will tell police to dispatch to the Whitehouse?

I can see it now, the presidential motorcade gets pulled over by airport security "Sorry sir, please step out of the vehicle, the computer has flagged you as being a person of interest in the global war on terror."

Wait!

[Anonymous Coward]

"The software then makes random decisions (which are thankfully based on calculated probabilities of terrorist attacks)"

So it's not really random... A pattern must come out after a while.

Re:Wait!

[davetd02]

So it's not really random... A pattern must come out after a while.

Not at all. A "pattern" that's useful to a criminal would be knowing that there's always a checkpoint on Lane 1 on Mondays, or that they always check Lane 4, then Lane 2, then Lane 1, then Lane 3.

Using the probabilities means that at any given moment there's a 20% chance they'll be checking Lane 1 and a 30% chance they'll be checking Lane 2, but it doesn't tell you whether you should try to smuggle contraband through 1 or 2.

It's basically ideal game theory -- even if the other side knows what your algorithm is, they can't beat it since you're still playing randomly. The usual Computer Science example is a tennis player; you know there's a 60% chance that your opponent will hit it to your backhand and a 40% chance that they'll hit it to your forehand, but there's a limit to how far you can compensate either direction. Knowing the probability in that case doesn't tell you which side the ball is going to go to. (The real example is somewhat more convoluted, but you get the 10-second version)

Re:Wait!

[cheater512]

Thats assuming that the humans obey the program.

People like routines and dont like random changes.

Re:Wait!

[ralewi1]

This article is about game theory. The professor behind the program is an AI expert, who should be up on game theory and risk analysis. In any case, there are instances where, in games, generating actions using random distributions can result in a better expected outcome than what may appear common sensical. If you do a risk analysis of a public place, such as an airport, you get events that are rare and extremely damaging (eg 9/11 attacks) and things that are more common but less lethal (eg. pipe bombs). You have fixed resources to protect against any of a number of high level threats... pick those with the most risk and make it hard for the bad guy to find a clear opening to cause harm. From the article, it sounds like the software helps ensure security forces truly act in a random manner and avoid routine.

Why spend the money?

[Fnord666]

...that will be used at LAX Airport to make security and police operations there truly unpredictable

Have you ever been to LAX? Security and police operations are already truly unpredictable and seemingly random.

Re:Why spend the money?

[evil agent]

unpredictable and seemingly random

Are you sure you're not thinking of flight times?

Re:Why spend the money?

[Bananenrepublik]

What a great excuse that makes.

"Guys, why are all of you in the smoking area?" - "Computer told us."

"Guys, shouldn't you be patroling places other than the women's changing rooms?" - "Sorry, computer told us."

"Guys, don't tell me the computer told you to play poker" - "No, but he sure is a tough player."

Randomness eh? Well then...

[CrazyJim1]

I have a paper that covers rock.

Yeah that help

[aepervius]

Because we all know that terrorist try to actively avoid canine search and airport security roaming all over the airport, as opposed to, say, passing successfully through the choke point where you have to go through x-ray and removing your belt, pants, shoe and underwear (soon to come). And naturally such said terrorist will go into the database and search for route of police to actively avoid them. /Security Theater. It looks to me it is more designed for drug and other smuggling criminal activity than terrorist. But hey, the commie are there to get you ! Sorry , I meant witches. Hrm. terrorist.

Can you spell "Hacker"?

[itsybitsy]

H. A. C. K. E. R.

Hack into the ARMOR system, alter the code, have it generate the routes for you and you won't have to "guess" it's random predictions.

The COPS won't know the difference when they are dispatched to places at the airport. If fact it could dispatch them so that they are FAR away from the real action taking place. If fact you could dispatch them with instructions that a terrorist action was taking place on the other side of the airport with descriptions of innocents as the terrorists causing the police to be terrorists upon those innocents. Well, that's not that unusual since the police are usually domestic terrorists anyhow for most people that they interact with.

I leaked the algorithm:

[Ethanol-fueled]

do {
goAfterTheBeardedGuy();
}while(beardedguy == brown);

Re:I leaked the algorithm:

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a flaw in your algorithm. The first iteration will goAfterTheBeardedGuy even if beardedguy != brown. Also, what happens when beardedguy stops being == to brown, the loop ends. Something like the following would probably work better.

while( civilian = FindCivilian() )
{
  if( civilian.color == brown && civilian.features == bearded )
    goAfterTheBeardedGuy();
}

Finally.

[ChePibe]

It's about time airports started using their luggage routing software for security purposes.

Dupe damn you!

[FoolsGold]

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/30/138233

My first Slashdot dupe report. I'm so excited! What do I win?

Not a good idea at all

[SuperKendall]

Terrorists though don't actually have that many people to waste on an operation - and if a bunch of suspicious guys get caught all over the airport at once, they would simply lock everything down and really give people there the once-over.

It might work as a gag but wouldn't do anything actually harmful.

They way they do things already with behavior observation is probably the best possible approach because that way they do not target any particular nationality or race, and even false positives mean you get a chance to calm someone down upset about something that might be abusive to the airline crew.

Brilliant, Randomness!!

[protolith]

Are they going to have truly random responses?

Thursday, Red panties are prohibited from carry on Luggage.
Friday, the X-ray conveyor machine will distribute Salisbury steak.

Periodically travelers will be pulled from the security line,
some will be sent directly to their planes, some will be beaten with sticks.

Saturday, the first 100 customers get a hand grenade!
Sunday, 100 random travelers will be conscripted to run security for the rest of the day.

Re:Is it THAT hard...

[PinkyDead]

They tried that at Heathrow, but they found that the baggage area became quickly infested with level 4 trolls, a small army of Orcs had set up camp in the ladies toilets and a level 12 necromancer took over the computer system.