FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas -- Although much of the world has focused on Haiti since the earthquake, a 470th Military Intelligence Brigade Force Protection Detachment has been involved with Haiti's neighbor, the Dominican Republic, for almost five years, helping that country to develop technology to improve its law enforcement.
In 2005, Blaise Smith, special agent in charge of the FPD, identified the need for a technological solution to help correct a collection gap deficiency within the Dominican Republic's repatriation process and criminal records. Smith determined that there were five weaknesses in the existing process:
Aca,!Ac Information obtained by Dominican authorities was based on an honor system.
Aca,!Ac Background checks were not performed on individuals captured or detained, which led to the third weakness.
Aca,!Ac No functional database was maintained for the Dominican Republic.
Aca,!Ac Individuals had to be released within 48 hours.
Aca,!Ac Authorities did not know if they were releasing a wanted criminal, a terrorist, drug smuggler or illegal migrant.
"Clearly a new capability and strategy was needed," Smith concluded.
The strategy that was developed included: stopping or deterring illegal migrants from leaving the Dominican Republic; interdicting them at high sea and repatriating them; and in the event the migrants reached Puerto Rico, repatriating them as soon as possible to the Dominican Republic.
Shawn Porter, 470th MI Brigade biometrics division identity operations manager, said the SAC and the FPD began working to provide an initial biometric capability for the Dominican Republic.
Between August 2005 and February 2007, a number of conferences and working groups were conducted to develop a solution to this problem.
These meetings culminated in the signing of the Biometric Initiative Memorandum of Agreement between the U.S. and the Dominican Republic.
The agreement, which was signed by U.S. Ambassador Hans Hertell and Lt. Gen. Ramon A. Aquino Garcia of the Dominican Republic Armed Forces, agreed to establish and to support a project to enhance the law enforcement capabilities of the Dominican Armed Forces.
One of the specific requirements from the MOA was to recruit qualified personnel from within the Dominican military to coordinate the details of a training program for joint counter-narco-terrorism operations.
At the end of 2009, the Dominican Republic had 20 Biometric Automated Toolsets that perform like the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System.
"The IAFIS provides automated fingerprint search capabilities, latent searching capability, electronic image storage, and electronic exchange of fingerprints and responses," Porter explained.
"With the BAT system, local databases pass information, both biometric and biographical, to the central headquarters so that all Dominican Republic sites will have the most current criminal information on subjects."
U.S. Southern Command, in coordination with the brigade's Biometrics Division, led by Porter, has been trying to sustain the current progress and help capitalize on future capabilities.
"As the biometric enterprise matures and advances, the Dominican Republic can advance its forensics capability," said Porter.
"With the leadership of the new SAC, James Evans, the Dominican Republic will have another advantage of utilizing a more robust forensics capability."
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