DBIDS upgrade delivers Team Offutt faster, secure base access

  • Published
  • By Drew Nystrom
  • 55th Wing Public Affairs
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, NEBRAKSA --  For the nearly 12,000 Team Offutt members and visitors who transit the base gates each day, they may notice traffic is flowing faster, but might not realize security is also stronger.

Thanks to a Defense Biometrics Identification System 5.0 upgrade, ID card scanning speed has been reduced to a single second or less and the DBIDS equipment footprint is 40 percent smaller.

DBIDS is a card-scanning tool, installed at every Air Force installation stateside and overseas, to include Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard bases, that uses barcodes and biometrics to identify cardholders. The system verifies authorizations and assigns access privileges based on identity, affiliation and the current threat level.

The system is maintained by the same folks who run the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) and the Real-Time Automated Personnel Identification System (RAPIDS).

“This system allows our security professionals to rapidly identify and screen people who request access onto Offutt,” Greg Derkatch, pass and registration chief said. “Ultimately, it allows us to stop potential threats at the gate.”

55th Wing defenders have been using the devices since 2012, but they were not always as quick to provide scanned data results.

With DBIDS 5.0, the scan time has been cut by about a third by consistently returning results between half a second to three seconds.

According to Derkatch, this technology responds more quickly and with more accuracy than a human physically checking an ID card.

“During peak traffic hours, Offutt has a pretty heavy volume of traffic flowing through the gates,” Derkatch said. “Use of the new DBIDS scanners has greatly increased the accuracy and speed of identity verification, lessening bottlenecks, all while creating a smoother traffic flow at installation entry control points.”

An additional benefit of the system is its ability to identify personnel who have been barred from the base or have outstanding warrants.

When a DoD credential is initially scanned at an installation entry control point, the cardholder is automatically registered in DBIDS once the ID Card is validated in DEERS. DBIDS is interconnected with DEERS and the FBI National Crime Information Center (NCIC) for continuous vetting.

According to the Air Force Security Forces Center, in 2016 entry controllers detected 4,000 people with warrants, flagged 233 armed and dangerous, 71,000 personnel with terminated ID Cards, 3,500 barred, 73,000 expired ID cards and 22,580 ID cards reported lost or stolen.

Locally in 2016, Offutt defenders identified 379 people with extensive criminal history and 139 of these individuals were denied base access.

“Our mission is to keep Offutt the safe and secure place to live and work that it is today,” Derkatch said. “DBIDS is just one more technological security enhancement that definitely gives our base defenders the upper hand in achieving this goal.”