Scanners Provide New Weapon At Security Checks

Army guards at Fort Sam Houston have a new weapon in their anti-crime arsenal, a hand-held identity detector that taps information from more than 100 databases – in one second.

They've been using the scanners since last summer, checking the driver's licenses of non-military people coming onto the San Antonio base.

Some arrests have been made, but base spokesman Phillip Reidinger wouldn't say how many or for what reasons. He called it an "enhancement to our protocols."

Now the company making the devices, Washington-based Intellicheck Mobilisa, hopes to expand their use to border agents, the Transportation Security Administration at airports and more police departments, including those in North Texas.

The wireless, hand-held IM2500 Sentry scanner uses the bar coding or magnetic strip on the back of a driver's license or military ID to check identification from criminal and government databases. It can search for passengers on terror watch lists, weed out fake IDs, track visa overstays and alert law officers of outstanding warrants.

"When you catch bad guys, we're happy," said Steve Williams, the manufacturer's chief operating officer.

More than 6 million scans are run a day and, he said, the scanners have helped result in 60,000 arrests since the start of 2004. None of them, he said, was based on a mistaken identity by the scanners.

Critics of the program say they're concerned about the potential for abuse and have questioned the legality of a non-public company allowing others such deep access to classified personal information.

Williams acknowledged that "a lot of people think it's Big Brotherish," but he said safeguards are in place to ensure all privacy rights.

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Source: Dallas-Fort Worth News