INDUSTRY FOCUS

Taking a Stand

• By Ralph C. Jensen
• Jan 27, 2022

The government, specifically with his signature, Pres. Joe Biden has thrown support to security manufacturers who play by an established set of rules in the best interest of the U.S. government.

Fiscal 2022 NDAA is an annual authorization for funding for Defense Department, and its military components. SIA officials have made it known that it is in full support of the passage of this legislation. SIA also recommended funding levels of military committees.

The letter, signed by Don Erickson, CEO at SIA, drilled down to specifics in military funding. It went something like this, though these are only a few examples.

SIA supports the authorized fiscal 2022 funding levels for critical biometric procurement and research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) programs noted in the House and Senate versions, including:

• Biometric Tactical Collection Devices, House and Senate Funding Requests, $11,097,000.
• Biometric Enabling Technology, House and Senate Funding Requests, $4,326,000.
• Biometrics Enabled Intelligence, House and Senate Funding Requests, $2,066,000.

Military installations continue to experience unpredictable threats from persons planning to cause physical damage to military facilities, harm military staff and strategic assets, and commit security breaches into classified areas.

To respond to these ongoing threats, DOD and each service branch created physical security procurement programs to improve the security posture of critical military facilities by overseeing the acquisition of closed-circuit television cameras, locking mechanisms at points of entry, counter UAS technology, and electronic physical access control systems, to name a few.

There is a little bit more here and there, but I got a kick out of the final paragraph from Erickson. He gets right the first time, and to the point of why there is an NDAA. Well done, Don.

“Therefore, we support the inclusion of the Senate’s report language on facial recognition technologies that prohibits federal agencies from awarding competition funds to facial recognition providers based in adversarial nations.”

This article originally appeared in the January / February 2022 issue of Security Today.