DHS biometric collection devices industry day materials available

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM) and Office of Procurement Operations held a Biometric Collection Devices (BCD) Industry Day on July 29 to discuss an upcoming requirement for BCDs. A recording of the event, as well as the PowerPoint presentation and questions and answers from the event are now available.

The purpose of the industry day was to allow industry the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the objective of the BCD requirement. In addition, it offered DHS and government stakeholders an opportunity to stress the importance of the significant elements of the program, as well as allow industry partners to provide feedback on the technical aspects of the requirement.

“DHS has a requirement to conduct biometric identification operations in the performance of its mission,” said OBIM Senior Advisor Thaddeus Hush. “Several components and external federal agencies have a need to access Biometric Collection Devices to strengthen identity verification and security across federal agencies.”

Hush said the BCD “requirements are categorized by their capabilities and modalities to support diverse operational mission conditions and “include mobile, stationary, standoff, physical contact, ruggedization, and multi-modal. BCD requirement modalities include face, fingerprint, iris, and other modalities as they emerge. The biometrics collection requirements are not exclusive to DHS, so the solution needs to be available to support other federal agencies.”

The other federal agencies are the U.S. Department of State through its Consular Systems and Technology office, and the U.S. Department of Defense through its Defense Forensics and Biometrics Agency.

The DHS components with requirements are: Office of the Chief Information Officer; Office of the Chief Security Officer; Science and Technology Directorate; Customs and Border Protection; Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Key takeaways from the presentation include an emphasis on the need for commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware that can collect biometric data in electronic formats, specifically targeting modalities such as face recognition, fingerprinting, and iris scanning.

DHS’s Biometric Collection Devices Strategic Sourcing Vehicle (SSV) will focus on those COTS hardware collection devices The first iteration of the SSV focuses on face, fingerprint, and iris modalities, with additional modalities to be added later to the SSV as the requirements are developed and finalized, DHS said.

DHS provided an estimated timeline for the procurement process, indicating that industry engagement would begin in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2025, followed by a solicitation and award by the end of the fiscal year.

The presentation also highlighted the requirement for stringent compliance with federal cybersecurity standards and regulations that govern the use of biometric technologies throughout the federal government.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  border security  |  DHS  |  mobile biometrics  |  OBIM  |  tender  |  U.S. Government