Marines integrate biometrics on battlefield
The U.S. Marine Corps is beginning to implement biometric technologies to help them identify insurgents on the battlefield; members of the III Marine Expeditionary Force in Japan are undergoing training to learn how to gather biometric data; in particular, troops are looking for fingerprints from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to help capture bomb makers; the prints are stored in a database that will soon be shared with DHS border agents to assist with counter-terrorism efforts within the United States; border agents will be able to determine if people entering the country match any of the insurgents identified abroad
The U.S. Marine Corps is beginning to implement biometric technologies to help them identify insurgents.
The Military Police Company of the 3rd Marine Logistics Group as well as members of Army intelligence units stationed with the III Marine Expeditionary Force in Japan recently underwent training to learn how to gather biometric data on the battlefield as part of the Forensic Material Collection and Exploitation Course (FMCEC).
Tim Seguin, an FMCEC instructor, said, “The people we are dealing with right now are not wearing distinctive uniforms, and we need to identify them somehow.”
Seguin is helping to train troops to gather evidence by implementing traditional law enforcement techniques used to process scenes for clues.
In particular, soldiers and marines are looking for fingerprints from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to help capture bomb makers.
He explains that, “We are building a database of latent fingerprints with the automatic-biometric-identification-system,” which functions “like a criminal database” in the United States.
This database has helped troops identify enemy combatants and reduce the threat of IEDs.
“I can speak for Iraq when I was there, what we have been doing has contributed to a 65 percent drop in (improvised explosive device)-related casualties since we started collecting biometric intelligence,” says Seguin.
These efforts are also benefitting counterterrorism efforts within the United States as the database of fingerprints will soon be shared with DHS border agents, who will be able to determine if people entering the country match any of the insurgents identified abroad.
Fred Hines, the team leader of FMCEC, hopes to expand the system to be able to record more fingerprints and other biometric data from insurgents in the future.
He says, his “goal is to train every Marine, every soldier, everybody that is deploying.”
