Canadians Host First-Ever Biometric Conference

The Canadian Director of National Defense (DND) has a key role in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) coalition in Afghanistan and over the past few years has taken a greater interest in both biometrics and forensics capabilities and how those capabilities add to the portfolio of skills required for physical security and counter-terrorism efforts in coalition warfare.  To support Canadian DND initial efforts to establish a robust biometrics and forensics capability, three BTF members attended the 2009 Biometrics Conference, “Current and Future Biometrics Support to Operations,” held in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada June 1-4.

BTF representative William Vickers (r) fields questions from his presentation at the biometric conference in Ottawa, Ontario.

Throughout the conference, BTF representatives William Vickers, Tom Cantwell, and Benji Hutchinson expanded international outreach efforts and solidified partnerships with their NATO allies by briefing the conference group on BTF operational challenges and lessons learned associated with the establishment of Department-wide joint biometrics and forensics programs.  The conference was attended by military and government officials from the Canadian DND, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Canada Border Services Agency (CBA), UK Ministry of Defense (MoD), U. S. National Ground Intelligence Center, the BTF, and others.

This initial biometrics conference, focused on Canadian, UK, and U.S. biometrically enabled intelligence operations, biometrics policy issues, border and security challenges, multimodal S&T research efforts including multiple topics on face, finger, iris, voice applications, forensics exploitation, and national and international biometric and identity management standards, and interoperability challenges and lessons learned from operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan.  A demonstration of the Secure Electronic Enrollment Kit (SEEK) and an overview brief by Computer Sciences Corporation was given.

“As the Canadian military biometric efforts mature, this is a great opportunity for the Biometrics Task Force to come alongside our Canadian and UK counterparts with lessons learned in order to enable success in our combined efforts in Afghanistan,” said Vickers,  Operations Division Chief and Special Assistant to the BTF Director.  “We hope that this dialog continues so that we can collaborate on not only operational issues, but in mutual S&T efforts and understanding, the development of standards, and how we can leverage operations to further enhance security in North America.”just makes sense for military and police forces to share lessons learned “from the field,” and so the Biometric Task Force in Crystal City needed to look no farther than its own backyard to find an experienced, county-level organization using biometrics for identification.