Identification is no longer a piece of cardstock you can stick in the back of your wallet or purse never to be seen again. With increasing concerns related to safety and homeland security, a growing emphasis is being placed on properly identifying and certifying personnel. With this comes the responsibility of not only giving all of your personnel durable, unique identification cards, but also verifying an individual’s validity to receive it. Whether you choose to utilize ID cards with barcodes, magnetic stripes, or smartcards with embedded chips, you must be able to integrate them into your organizational and incident management systems.
With the advent of initiatives like NIMS and PIV (Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12) the production and utilization of ID’s has changed dramatically in the last few years. What once was a simple piece of plastic or paper that signified that the bearer belonged to a particular group is now the key to managing the most valuable resource you have, trained personnel.
A quality ID program that meets the needs of your agency as well as adhering to emerging regulatory standards should consist of several components:
• Enrollment into the system should include collection and verification of demographic information, a digital photo image, and possibly biometric information. This is the first link in the “chain of trust” that guarantees the integrity of your system.
• Data preparation/storage must be secure. Authenticity must be maintained with measurable confirmation that sensitive information is protected from misuse. At the same time, collected data must be stored in a format that facilitates easy exchange with other data structures.
• Production of ID cards must be controlled and secure. ID cards must contain a quality digital photo image, as well as basic demographic information about the carrier. Whether you chose to utilize barcodes, magnetic stripes, smartcards, or a combination of any of these, every ID should contain a computer readable, identifying component specific to the carrier. The ID card is the most visible component in the image of trust that we bring to the public. The design of all ID credentials should include components that make it extremely difficult to forge or duplicate.
• IDs must be integrateable. IDs should be integrated into a variety of your everyday systems such as physical access to buildings, logistical access to networks, and human resource accountability. When in the field, IDs should be the key component in incident command and control. Whether it is site access control, physical asset accountability, or personnel asset accountability, your ID must integrate effectively. This integration is not only important within your own agency or county, but is vital on a state and national level to facilitate the effective sharing of assets and personnel during catastrophic events. Homeland Security, National Capital Region’s First Responder Partnership Initiative (FRPI) is an excellent example of an effective ID system that efficiently utilizes technology and cooperation among regional counterparts.
There are a myriad of ways to design, produce, and distribute identification credentials to your personnel. No matter how you chose to go about your ID program, you must ask yourself a few basic questions:
1. Are my IDs prepared and produced in a secure fashion?
2. Can my IDs be easily forged, altered, or duplicated?
3. Am I including ALL pertinent information or access to it on my IDs related to department, rank, clearances, certifications, etc?
4. Do my IDs integrate with my systems both in the office and in the field?
5. Do my IDs integrate with state and national systems
6. Do my IDs need standards outlines by state and national regulations?
7. Do I have an incident management system in place that effectively utilizes my agency IDs and the IDs of surrounding counterpart agencies?
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