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c a s e S T U D Y

F THE GOAL OF AN ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM IS TO CONTROL WHERE PEOPLE, not credentials, can and cannot go, only a biometric device truly provides this capa-bility to the end user. Certainly, there can be no places where this is truer than in mili-tary and law enforcement applications.

For instance, the U.S. military is using Schlage biometric hand readers housed inside a custom portal to ensure only authorized individuals access base camps in the Middle East, including Iraq. Hand readers automatically take a three-dimensional reading of the size and shape of a hand and verify the user’s identity in less than one second. They are not affected by dust, dirty hands, and minor injuries, which can cause false rejects with other biometric technology.

Security for Military & Law Enforcement

BY JON MOONEY

Biometrics Provide

Security for Military &

Biometrics Provide

"HANDS DOWN"

F THE GOAL OF AN ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM IS TO CONTROL WHERE PEOPLE, notbility to the end user. Certainly, there can be no places where this is truer than in military and law enforcement applications.I

JUNE 2008 £ DOORS & HARDWARE 11

“The military used the hand readers as a beta test in the theater for nine months and had excel-lent results,” says David Slagel, president of Modular Security Systems Inc. (MSSI), the integrator (Ironton, Ohio). “The HandKey unit is then placed inside our proprietary Modular Access Control (MAC) portal, which provides turnstiles and an access control infrastructure.”

The resulting portable, turnkey access control portals are plug-and-play, fully integrated security systems planned for military bases throughout the world. To install a MAC portal, military personnel simply set it in place and plug it into 220-power in a junction box. Since the units are portable, the military can establish a “moving perimeter,” widely used in base construction.

“When they finish with one site, they can simply pick up the portal and move it to the next site,” Slagel emphasizes. “For the military,

it represents zero construction process. They used to spend $80,000 to $100,000 rebuilding these ‘brass shacks’ each time the perimeter changed.”

Using the portals is also easy. Military personnel enter the portal through one of five roll-up doors.

They walk up to the entrance and present a proximity card and then their hand to the hand reader. If the light turns green, they are allowed entrance through the turnstiles. If the light is red, an alarm is sounded that alerts a guard, who then investigates.

The MAC portals, featuring the HandKey units, eliminate concerns about the identity of the cardholder or “tailgating,” in which someone simply follows the next person through an access point without proving their identity.

“The proximity card in combina-tion with the biometric identifier virtually eliminates both of these security-compromising practices and establishes a higher level of security,” Slagel notes.

New personnel are quickly registered at the MAC itself and the MACs can communicate with each other. There is typically a central MAC and the portals can be linked via a LAN or WAN.

Closer to home, Scott Air Force Base in St. Clair County, Ill., uses biometric hand readers to control access to the base from the Shiloh-Scott MetroLink station. Scott Air Force Base is the headquarters for the U.S. Transportation Command, Air Mobility Command, 18th

Air Force, Defense Information Systems Agency, and the Air Force Communication Agency. It is located on nearly 3,600 acres of land and employs more than 5,000 active-duty military personnel.

The base commands and controls all logistics of United States military in air, over land and across the sea. Team Scott sets policies and executes all air mobility operations. The installation is responsible for providing United States aero-medi-cal evacuation capabilities, fly operational support airlift in the C-21, and air refueling missions in the KC-135. Scott Air Force Base also supplies forces to theater combatant commanders.

The total workforce numbers more than 13,000 people, includ-ing Air Force Reserves, National Guardsmen, civil service and other civilian employees. It also provides services for more than 14,000 retired military personnel in the region. The recently opened Shiloh-Scott MetroLink station offers Scott employees a valuable commuting and transportation alternative to the St. Louis metropolitan region, with stations located at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, Busch Stadium, Union Station, Forest Park, University of Missouri-St. Louis, and the Central West End among its 27 stops. With so many people coming in and out of the base, hand readers were essential.

Scott Air Force Base is one of many U.S. Air Force bases to recently employ biometric hand readers for heightened homeland security and automated access control. Security forces at Scott initially manned the gate between the civilian and military sides of the Shiloh-Scott light rail train

OWN"

Since the units are portable, the military can establish a “moving perimeter…”

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station, but access to the base is now controlled using hand read-ers in conjunction with a six-digit personal identification number, freeing security personnel for other duties.

VerifyingParoleesinWashington

The Washington State Department of Corrections uses its HandKey biometric readers in over 70 kiosks located in all Department of Corrections (DOC) field offices statewide and most community outstations. The system receives over 26,000 reports per month. All five DOC regions have at least one location that receives more than 1,000 reports per month with the Seattle Metro office producing 1,600 reports. Approximately 45,000 offenders are required to report on

a regular schedule or when they change addresses or employment. It is believed to be the largest fully implemented system of its kind.

“Biometrics are used because the Department needs to verify that this information is coming directly from the offender,” explains Norm Harrison, GENIE project manager for the DOC. “During the course of testing and undergoing an extensive pilot project, we tried several types of biometrics. When we deployed kiosks statewide, we went to the HandKey based primarily on its ease of use. We experience fewer false negatives with this system than with other biometrics we tested.” (A false negative occurs when an authorized individual cannot access the system.)

By verifying themselves via HandKey readers, felony offenders

on supervision can then simply update their address, phone number and employment information using a touch screen monitor. This system saves the supervising officer time in processing paperwork and inputting computer data.

“It is estimated that each kiosk report saves an officer ten to 15 minutes in processing paperwork and computer entries,” Harrison reports. “This allows a single officer to monitor a large caseload of low-risk offenders.” A few minutes per each offender means a tremendous savings to the state. The system saves the Seattle office over 250 hours per month. Statewide it is estimated that over 50,000 hours are saved each year by using hand readers.

According to Harrison, high-risk offenders are also instructed to

InWashingtonState,thoseonparoleorprobationsavetheDepartmentofCorrectionsover50,000hoursperyearbycheckinginwithSchlageHandKeyreaders.

Thisportal,whichincludesaSchlageHandKeybiometrichandgeometryreaderhelpsprotectsoldiersintheMidEastfromunwarrantedentries.

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report. Daily kiosk reporting is often used as a sanction. Transient offenders are instructed to report frequently regarding their living arrangements. Unemployed offenders must report employment searches. These increased contacts provide valuable offender monitor-ing updates, allowing officers to spend greater time providing direct services and monitoring the highest risk offenders.

“This system has been installed statewide for the past four years,” Harrison adds. “During that time, we have not had any significant damage caused by offenders since they view this reporting status as a privilege and appreciate the quickness and ease of their check-in reports. Also, after hundreds of thousands of reports, we have

yet to have a HandKey fail or need replacement.”

The system is easy to use. When offenders report to a kiosk, they enter their DOC number on the HandKey keypad and then place their right hand within the HandKey to confirm their identity. This gives them access to a touch-screen monitor and keyboard with which they update their address, phone number and employment information. They also answer standard questions related to their payment of financial obligations and other status. They also respond to questions posed by their assigned officer regarding conditions of supervision.

“We are initiating a project that will place kiosks in prisons,” Harrison says. “Inmates are entitled

access to a vast amount of informa-tion which must be delivered to them directly by staff in a manner that precludes the possibility of other inmates intercepting the material. The task of delivering this information falls to staff throughout the facilities, diverting them from providing other essential services.

“Using kiosks with HandKey biometrics will allow the institu-tions to provide this routine infor-mation without direct staff involve-ment and let staff concentrate on more meaningful interventions.”

About the Author: Jon Mooney is the General Manager of Biometrics for Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies.

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