On October 1^st, the Science Policy Office hosted a meeting between leaders of the behavioral and social science research community and the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit (BSU). The planning dinner was convened as a follow-up to a successful half-day colloquium entitled “The Role of Human Factors in Homeland Security” at the annual meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) in Baltimore. The overall purpose of these and other meetings APA has held in conjunction with FBI Academy staff is to help facilitate their interaction with a range of behavioral scientists to help guide the FBI as it begins re-orienting to a domestic terrorism agenda.

While the FBI is receiving a critical review from the Intelligence and Homeland Security Committees on Capitol Hill, the reforms called for by congress will ultimately be implemented from within the Academy where all agents receive their primary and specialized training. In the discussions held October 1 as well as in on-going communications with the BSU Chief, we are assured that these discussions are having an impact on field operations.

The October 1 discussions were diverse and free-ranging but in general oriented around a number of practical operational and human performance issues. Examples of discussion topics included decision-making under stress, avoiding hindsight bias in analyses of intelligence failures, diversionary tactics in cyberespionage, and use of robotics in critical incidents.

It is hoped that these preliminary discussions will lead to a larger conference similar in scale to the one convened last February entitled "Countering Terrorism: Integrating Theory and Practice" 

Representing the FBI on October 1 were BSU Chief, Steve Band, PhD; forensic psychologist Tony Pinizzotto, PhD and Agent Harry Kern. In addition we were joined by Jim Griffin, PhD from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Clark McCauley, PhD and Ian Lustick, PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and the Solomon Asch Center for Ethnopolitical Conflict, Eric Niederman, PhD from the Transportation Security Administration, Colin Drury, PhD, Chair of the Security Subcommittee of the Federal Aviation Administration’s, Research Engineering and Development Advisory Committee, Doug Harris, PhD, President of Anacapa Sciences, Peter Hancock,PhD and Eduardo Salas,PhD from the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Simulation and Training at the University of Central Florida, Sandra Hart, special advisor for Strategic Planning for the Chief of NASA's Human Factors Division at the Ames Research Center, Mark Scerbo, PhD, Chair of the Technical Program Committee of HFES and Gerald Krueger, Past-President of Division 21. APA was represented by Susan Brandon, PhD, Senior Scientist and Geoff Mumford, PhD, Director of Science Policy.

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The Role of Human Factors in Homeland Security

Mark W. Scerbo, Chair

Peter A. Hancock, Co-chair

Mark Scerbo, Old Dominion University, An Overview of Human Factors and its Relevance to Homeland Security

James Griffin, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, The Role of Science and Technology in Homeland Security

Eric Neiderman, Transportation Security Administration, Human Factors Contributions to Aviation Security

Colin Drury, SUNY Buffalo, A Unified Model of Security Inspection

George R. Smith, U. S. Department of Justice, Domestic Preparedness and Consequence Managemential"

Norman Groner, University of California Berkley, Cognitive Issues Related to Building Evacuations