Korean National Police Use Holograms To Improve ID Badge Security

More than 100,000 South Korean police officers are using new-look police badges that are more secure and less prone to counterfeiting thanks to registered hologram laminate technology.

Using P640i printers from Zebra, the Korean Police Agency decided to print the cards internally to prevent counterfeiting of ID badges. 

The new IDs come with a secure, registered hologram laminate placed over the plastic badge, which was an improvement from the old design without an identifying hologram.

A registered hologram laminate can’t be copied or reproduced by conventional scanners or printers, giving the new IDs a high amount of security.

This badge also has a color photo of the officer, name, department, title, date of birth and  date of issuance of the card. The personalization provides secure identity for the badge holder.

“We chose the Zebra P640i for a few reasons,” said Byun Soo-Young, sales manager of Biovision Co. Ltd., the system integrator for the project. “First, this printer comes with security features. Second, the low cost per print also is an advantage.”

Installed earlier this year, units of the P640i were located centrally to print 100,000 ID badges. Twenty-two printers were subsequently distributed to provinces throughout South Korea to enable decentralized printing. A built-in Ethernet print server links the printers to the central database of the police force, which is located at the headquarters in Seoul.

Ace CardNet, Zebra’s South Korean partner, provided training on the usage of the laminating printer to police staff throughout the provinces to help smooth the card-printing process.

With the system firmly in place, South Korean police expect the print between 40,000 and 60,000 secure badges annually. There also are plans to expand the use of the printers by using chips in the cards for access control to restrict movement of personnel in certain areas.

About the Author

Brent Dirks is senior editor for Security Today and Campus Security Today magazines.

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