Thruvision’s Stand-Off People Screener Selected by L.A. Airports for Employee Screening

Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) has selected Thruvision

’s TAC stand-off people screening camera to help with employee screening at airports. LAWA is the governing body of Los Angeles International Airport and Van Nuys Airport. The value of the deal wasn’t disclosed but Thruvision said several TAC units are being acquired. The company says several U.S. airports are using the system and “many more internationally” and more than 200 systems have been deployed worldwide. Thruvision told HSR that some of the feedback it has received from its airport customers is that TAC “technology answers a need to provide a layer of safe, respectful employee screening that detects the things a metal detector would miss.” The TAC system is based on passive terahertz technology that can show items, metallic or non-metallic, hidden under outerwear and clothing, and can be deployed in mobile or a range of fixed-applications to screen up to 2,000 people per hour. The system doesn’t reveal anatomical detail.

USCIS Awards Geocent $73M Related to Risk and Fraud Services

Geocent recently received a potential three-year, $73.4 million contract from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for the Risk and Fraud DevSecOps Services contract in support of the Office of Information Technology, the largest award in the company’s history. The company says the award builds on its work the past two years as the incumbent prime contract for the USCIS JETS Risk and Fraud contract. Under the new award, Louisiana-based Geocent will provide software development services on the agency’s IT systems in USCIS federal cloud data centers to operate and modernize complex, legacy, large-scale, internally facing fraud detection and case management systems. Geocent will also build highly-sensitive new capabilities into new and existing systems. “This is the largest single award in Geocent’s history,” says Wayne “Ridge” Bourgeois, senior vice president of the company’s Mission Solutions & Services Division. “Our past performance has been affirmed and this win allows us to continue our partnership with USCIS Risk & Fraud, providing ongoing support and state-of-the-art technologies and capabilities to this program.”

Thales’ Gemalto Wins Contract to Provide AFIS for Canada’s Defense Department

Canada’s Department of National Defense has selected Gemalto to provide it with its first Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), providing a central, digital biometric repository that will be operated by the DND. The AFIS system will operational this December and is replacing a paper-based fingerprint system. The department will use the system for the collection, processing, enrollment, and verification of the biometric data for hiring, security clearances and policing. Gemalto, part of France’s Thales, won phases one and three of the biometric program. In phase one, the company provided a capability to connect with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to query their central AFIS server. Thales says that the DND and RCMP AFIS systems may support facial recognition, DNA, and other biometric modalities in the future. Gemalto is also installing a disaster recovery site as a backup for the DND. IDEMIA won the second phase of the program to provide livescan fingerprint capture devices to the DND. The livescan devices are in more than 150 sites across Canada.

Coast Guard Selects Parroco for Handheld TWIC Reader Device

The Coast Guard has selected Parroco Security Integration Group (P-SIG) to provide it with 250 Mozaic ID handheld smart card and fingerprint reader devices to meet Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) requirements at U.S. seaports. Integrated Biometrics is supplying its Columbo single-digit fingerprint scanner which is integrated into the Mozaic ID device. The device complies with the Coast Guard’s “reader rule” and is compatible with TWIC, CAC, PIV, PIV-I and other smart cards. “The Coast Guard requirements were stringent in terms of functionality, reliability, durability and mobility,” says Jim Parroco, CEO of P-SIG.

Army Awards Kratos $5M for System to Test Counter UAS Technology

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions [KTOS] says it has received a potential $4.9 million contract to develop and demonstrate a Tethered High-power microwave Recorder and Electronic Attack Target (THREAT) system to evaluate High Power Microwave (HPM) system capabilities necessary to defeat small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS). The contract has a $2.2 million base value. It was awarded by the Test Resource Management Center Test and Evaluation Science and Technology and the Army Program Executive Officer for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation. Kratos says that electrically-powered sUAS carrying surveillance, communication and weapon payloads are hard to visually detect and to detect with instrumentation given their low radar cross section. To improve counter-sUAS capabilities, the Defense Department is evaluating electronic jamming and HPM systems. “This work aligns well with our strategic plan to expand our efforts related to directed energy technologies,” says Dave Carter, president of Kratos Defense and Rocket Support Services.

Elite Protective to Provide Security Guard Services to DHS

The Department of Homeland Security Federal Protective Service has awarded Elite Protective Services a $19.4 million contract to provide protective security officer services at various federal facilities in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.