Illinois joins TSA’s HAZPRINT program

Illinois becomes the thirty-fifth state to join the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) HAZPRINT program. This program, which calls for the collection and management of fingerprint and demographic data of commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders who wish to transport hazardous materials, was contracted to Integrated Biometric Technology (IBT), a division of Billerica, Massachusetts-based Viisage Technology in 2004. It is IBT’s belief that Illinois is one of the top ten states in the nation in terms of the number of individuals holding a hazardous materials endorsement (HME). Illinois has 105,000 HME authorizations among their 465,000 commercial drivers today. “Illinois is pivotal for us given the sheer number of HME drivers in that state,” said Charles Carroll, CEO of IBT. To date, the IBT HAZPRINT program has processed credentials for more than 193,053 drivers in 33 states and the District of Columbia between February 2005 and June 2006. The Illinois Department of Motor Vehicles has chosen IBT as the state’s sole source to provide demographic and fingerprint data services for its hazmat drivers.

The fingerprint data will be used by the TSA to conduct background screening against potential HME holders as part of the security requirements associated with the Patriot Act. IBT currently has greater than 75 percent of all state HME contracts.