Biometric Performance: 

The DHS Perspective 

Arun Vemury, Program Manager 

HSARPA/Human Factors Division 

Science and Technology Directorate 

U.S. Department of Homeland Security 

March 2010 

arun.vemury@dhs.gov 
Human Factors 

Behavioral Sciences Division 

Deter 

Predict 

Detect 

Respond/Defeat 

Mitigate 

Motivation & Intent 

Enhance the capability of the Department to analyze and counter terrorist motivation, intent, and behavior. 

Suspicious Behavior Detection 

Improve screening by providing a science-based capability to identify unknown threats indicated by deceptive 

and suspicious behavior. 

Personal Identification Systems (Biometrics)

Improve screening by providing a science-based capability to identify known threats through accurate, timely, and 

easy-to-use biometric identification and credentialing validation tools. 

Community Preparedness & Resilience

Enhance preparedness and mitigate impacts of catastrophic events by delivering capabilities that incorporate social, 

psychological and economic aspects of community resilience. 

Human Technology Integration 

Enhance safety, effectiveness, and usability of technology by systemically incorporating user and public input. 

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Human Factors 

Behavioral Sciences Division 

Drivers for the DHS Biometrics S&T Program 

Prevent terrorists from operating effectively 

against U.S. 

• Know who they are and what they are planning to do 

• Impede their ability to recruit, train, obtain finances, 

acquire weapons (CBRNE), communicate and travel 

• Disrupt their activities – surveillance, staging, 

rehearsal, attack – at all levels of the homeland 

security enterprise 

• Remove dangerous people 

Developing capabilities to consistently and positively identify 

those seeking entry into the U.S. is vital to this effort 

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Human Factors 

Behavioral Sciences Division 

Drivers for the DHS Biometrics S&T Program 

Prevent illegal entry of people, weapons 

or contraband into U.S. 

• Deter those who would enter the country illegally or 

import contraband 

• Encourage legal immigration and lawful, secure 

commerce 

• Impede ability to cross border except at designated 

ports of entry 

• Prevent admission of dangerous people while 

facilitating legitimate travel 

Developing capabilities to consistently and positively identify 

those seeking entry into the U.S. is vital to this effort 

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Human Factors 

Behavioral Sciences Division 

Drivers for the DHS Biometrics S&T Program 

Protect continuity of systems fundamental to 

societal stability and security 

• Impede the ability to disrupt or weaponize critical 

infrastructure 

• Implement a cascading Federal/State/community/ 

individual system of resilience through preparedness 

and integrated emergency management 

• Ensure resiliency of functions critical to public health 

and safety, government and essential services 

Developing capabilities to consistently and positively identify 

those seeking entry into the U.S. is vital to this effort 

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Kathy Kraninger

Director, Deputy Director,

SCO CIS

Sharla Rausch

Acquisition Director,

Human Factors

Bob Mocny

Director, US-VISIT

Human Factors 

Behavioral Sciences Division 

Drivers for the DHS Biometrics S&T Program 

“In the face of resourceful terrorists, however, we must continue to 

expand the US-VISIT program’s biometric enrollment from two 

fingerprints to ten fingerprints, as well as leverage science and 

technology to enable more advanced multi-modal biometric recognition 

capabilities in the future that use fingerprint, face, or iris data.” 

- National Strategy for Homeland Security, 

Homeland Security Council, October 2007 

“...agencies are to place emphasis on the priorities outlined in The 

National Biometrics Challenge and the resulting agenda developed by 

the NSTC Subcommittee on Biometrics and Identity Management.” 

- OMB and OSTP FY2009 R&D Budget 

Priorities (www.ostp.gov) 

DHS People Screening IPT

Kathy Kraninger Michael Aytes

Director, Deputy Director, 

Homeland Security Presidential Directive 24 SCO CIS 

& National Security Presidential Directive 59 Sharla Rausch 

Biometrics for Identification and Screening to Acquisition Director, 

Enhance National Security Human Factors

Bob Mocny 

Director, US-VISIT 6 





Biometrics: DHS’s Unique Challenges 

Human Factors 

Behavioral Sciences Division 

• DHS has some unique Biometric challenges for screening 

operations 

– Scale and diversity of screening sites 

– Accommodation of existing DHS practices 

• Workload, wait times and throughput 

– Harsh lighting and environmental factors 

– Extreme Outdoor Mobile Conditions 

– Non-cooperative users 

– Field-collected samples of mixed quality 

– Real-time access to match results across the DHS 

enterprise and interoperability with mission partners 

• These challenges must be addressed for widespread 

deployment of biometrics 

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