Airport to scan workers’ fingerprints

Thursday, Jan. 3, 2002 | 9:35 a.m.

Airport workers who move through security areas will soon participate in a cutting-edge technology called "biometrics."

Thousands of McCarran International Airport workers will have their fingerprints electronically scanned and digitally forwarded to the FBI for a background check.

The Clark County Commission on Wednesday approved $110,000 for salaries for three employees to run the new equipment, which will cost about $120,000, McCarran International Airport spokeswoman Hilarie Grey said.

The impetus for fingerprinting comes from the Federal Aviation Administration, which as of Dec. 6 requires the check for all employees with access to secure locations. The security check, in place for several years for airports taking in a million or more passengers from overseas, is now in place for all major commercial airports.

The fingerprinting requirement is one of the security checks instituted after Sept. 11.

McCarran is going with an electronic method on the advice of the airport's security staff, Grey said. Airports can choose whatever method they want to do the fingerprinting, including the ink-and-print method that police have used for decades.

But getting a paper response from the federal government's record checks can take weeks. The electronic method takes hours or even minutes.

For McCarran, with about 6,000 "badged" employees who require the fingerprint check, it made sense to go to the new technology, Grey said. The equipment to read the fingerprints is manufactured by Florida-based Cross Match Technologies.

Cross Match engineer Greg Cannon said his company's product makes sense for an airport as busy as McCarran because of its speed, but also because of its accuracy.

"This thing short-circuits a lot of human error," Cannon said.

"This is the quickest and most accurate equipment out there," Grey agreed.

Cannon said the equipment is particularly apt for airports such as McCarran that have thousands of employees and millions of passengers.

"Las Vegas is a very important place to protect," he said. The airport saw about 37 million passengers last year. Cannon said many airports already were interested in the biometric technology before the September attacks. The interest became a wave of orders after the attacks.

"Airports all over the country are lining up to buy these machines," said Randy Walker, Clark County Aviation Department director. The department runs McCarran.

Allen Knitzer, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, said from Seattle that his local airport uses similar technology -- and it has proven to be accurate and speedy. He said major urban airports nationwide are turning to similar systems for employee criminal background checks.

The Cross Match technology digitally reads biological markers -- in this case, the swirls and rings on everyone's fingers -- and can quickly match the data to existing markers.

The check should pick up people with criminal histories who the FAA has barred from secure areas such as runways and baggage handling.

Grey said the new equipment should be up and running by the end of January.

Although the immediate cost will be picked up by the airport -- and ultimately the passengers who fly in and out of McCarran -- Grey said a proposal is in Congress which would reimburse the airport for the cost of the security equipment.

Timothy Pratt contributed to this story.