Zeroing Biometrics: Collecting Biometrics Before the Shooting Starts
Abstract
The great challenge in defeating an insurgency is that the members of an insurgency are often difficult to identify. Biometrics offers a means to remove an insurgent's anonymity and make visible that person's identity to military personnel, the police, border guards, and transportation authorities. An examination of the writings of insurgency theorists and counterinsurgency theorists makes it possible to lay out key principles a system like biometrics must influence to be of value. An analysis of these principles reveals that the Department of Defense's biometrics program, as used in Iraq and Afghanistan, engages most of these principles successfully. However, the key challenge to a successful biometrics program of the future is the collection of biometric information early, preferably before a conflict begins. Targeting biometric collection to areas of strife and to certain types of individuals is a good way to build a sizeable database. To accomplish this, the Department of Defense must provide updated policy and doctrine on the collection of biometrics in Phase Zero operations within every geographic combatant command.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA562270
Entities
People
- Michael R Green
Organizations
- National Defense University