DHS develops shared biometrics database with DOD

DHS is currently developing a joint database that will give border agents access to the Department of Defense’s (DOD) biometrics records and hopes to have the system operational by the end of this year.

The goal is to allow DHS agents at points of entry to run an individual’s fingerprint to determine if that person had any run-ins with the U.S. military. The database also includes fingerprints taken from improvised explosive devices.

Speaking before a panel at last month’s AFCEA Homeland Security conference in Washington, D.C., Thomas Killion, director of DOD’s Biometrics Identity Management Agency, “The battlefield is not a nice, neat place.”

“There’s a lot of trafficking across the globe, there are people moving across that globe, and there are certainly cases of people who have involved themselves in the wrong kinds of activities in theater and then popped up elsewhere on the globe, perhaps trying to come across the border. If we weren’t sharing this data and that were to happen, and they were to engage in activities here domestically, we would certainly hear about that in the press,” added Bob Mocny, the director of DHS’ U.S. VISIT program.

Mocny says that this new system will function similarly to the existing Secure Communities program, which connects local law enforcement agents with DHS and FBI databases. Under the system, whenever an individual is arrested, police officers can scan their fingerprint and it will determine if they had any prior arrests or felonies as well as their immigration status.

“We can tell that police officer who is really in front of them, and the fact that they’ve been deported two or three times before and the fact that we want to put a detainer on that individual and deport them,” he said.

According to Mocny, “From October 2008 through the end of January 2011, 62,000 convicted criminal aliens have been removed because of the Secure Communities program. And that 62,000 just may not have been encountered before.”

These new systems are a vast improvement over current joint data exchange plans between DHS, DOD, and the FBI which are often done manually. Now agents in the field will have the ability to search through voluminous amounts of data within seconds.

These new joint information sharing databases must be implemented according to Homeland Security Presidential Directive 24, which mandates that all biometric data shared between government agencies must conform to local privacy laws.

Dan Roberts, the assistant director of the FBI, says that ensuring privacy laws are followed is often more difficult than the technological implementation of such systems.

“My database is very rich with 70 million bad guys. But we don’t own those records. They’re owned by the states, by the 18,000 law enforcement agencies across this country. They submit them to us and allow us to use them, we hold them and distribute them per their agreements with each of the states. And every state has a different law governing what records can be distributed and what they can be used for. The challenge is walking that line and making sure we’re not violating any of the states’ rights in addition the federal laws that we have,” he said.