http://www.hstoday.us/single-article/nist-report-supports-rfid-technology-for-law-enforcement/a31fd5bb2622cdd9a5aad51efbf6fab6.html
NIST Report Supports RFID Technology for Law Enforcement By: Amanda Vicinanzo, Senior Editor 12/10/2014 (10:00am) [image: Bookmark and Share] <http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=xa-4a8ac57416db70f7> With the increasing popularization of automated identification technologies (AIT), such as barcoding and radio frequency identification (RFID), to track assets and people, RFID systems are now being touted for their potential benefits in forensic science laboratories and law enforcement agencies. To assist law enforcement agencies in better understanding the benefits of RFID technology, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) <http://www.nist.gov/> recently published the report, “RFID Technology in Forensic Evidence Management, An Assessment of Barriers, Benefits and Costs, <http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/ir/2014/NIST.IR.8030.pdf> that provides recommendations for law enforcement agencies responsible for the management and tracking of forensic evidence. Although RFID tags have become increasingly popular, with EZ Pass—an automatic electronic toll collection system using in-car tags—as a prime example, few law enforcement agencies have considered using the new technology over concerns regarding start-up costs and reliability. NIST defines AIT as “the capture, collection, and transfer of data about objects directly into computer systems with little to no human involvement.” Barcodes, the most common form of AIT, are used for a range of activities, from tracking hospital patients to identifying items at the grocery store. A less common form of AIT are RFID systems which consist of a microchip and antenna, making them a more costly technology than barcoding that can also be difficult to implement. However, while barcoding offers law enforcement a low cost method of tracking property and evidence, RFID systems have several huge advantages. NIST indicated that, “RFID technology uses radio-frequency energy to transfer data from tagged items as it passes within the range of a reader to enable identification, categorization, and tracking.” RFID systems can read hundreds of tags in a few seconds and track an item as it moves through a process. The report stated that, “An RFID tag, in effect, automatically announces itself to a nearby reader by means of its radio signal and therefore does not need to be in line of sight with a reader. Since the data obtained is continuous, items can be tracked in real time. This facilitates rapid, bulk interaction with tagged items that reduces the time needed to conduct evidence intake, inventory and searches, therefore reducing costs.” RFID tags also contain a silicon chip that can be programmed to accumulate data for local storage, sense the environment, and go dormant or periodically wake up to perform functions and protect their data with encryption or passwords. Moreover, while the barcode-based systems boast a fairly low cost, at roughly 2 cents per label, unlike the RFID system, the labor and time cost of a barcode-based system grows with the size of the solution. “A barcode typically requires a manual scan at each process step that is required to be recorded. As more items with barcodes are introduced into the business process, more time will be required to process and scan all items,” the report said. *Homeland Security Today* recently reported <http://www.hstoday.us/briefings/daily-news-analysis/single-article/new-york-city-adopts-rfid-tags-to-track-first-responders/8ff5b1051bed6af02206d4e3415099e6.html>the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) has achieved great success implementing a new technology using radio identification to coordinate its 14,000 firefighters and emergency responders. Prior to the new system, each firefighter kept a paper “riding list” of personnel in his or her pocket and left a copy of the list in the vehicle when responding to an incident. However, 9/11 demonstrated the need to keep an off-site record of personnel. "The events of 9-11-2001 revealed that FDNY did not have a reliable method to account for all members responding to an incident,” said FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief Edward Baggott in a statement. *Overcoming the challenge of expensive initial investment in RFID technology* As budget-strapped state and local agencies find themselves in the difficult position of “having to do more with less,” it’s increasingly unlikely they will consider implementing a technology-based property and evidence management system due to the costs required to build and maintain such a system. NIST estimated, however, that RFID systems can pay back their initial set-up cost in about two years. Although difficult to determine the return on investment (ROI) due to the various factors involved in managing evidence, NIST was able to calculate the relative savings of an RFID-enabled evidence tracking solution versus a paper-based solution using the Netherlands Forensics Institute (NFI) as a model. The NFI, a Netherlands government agency that collects and analyzes crime-scene evidence, implemented a custom RFID system to comply with government standards requiring all pieces of criminal evidence material to be traceable and identifiable. After analyzing the NFI’s system, NIST found the period of time to pay back an investment is a function of the quantity of evidence items being managed. Increasing the number of items managed substantially increases savings. For instance, “If an agency seeks to implement RFID as a capital investment to improve its internal processes on its own, the payback period would be expected to be at least 2 years for agencies with over 100,000 items and longer for agencies with fewer items," NIST said. NIST also determined agencies can substantially increase savings if the costs of the integration and process re-engineering services are shared across multiple organizations. When the jurisdiction shares the initial cost of investment and more than 25,000 forensic evidence items are being managed, NIST found the agencies could expect a significant return on investment. “The success of any AIT-based property and evidence solution within the forensic community depends on understanding the fundamental evidence handling business processes, the current weaknesses of the processes, and the benefits and advantages of AIT insertion. After a law enforcement agency has taken the steps to understand these issues, selecting and implementing the technology is straightforward,” the report stated. *Successful implementation of RFID technology by law enforcement agencies* To reduce costs and enable successful implementation of RFID technology, law enforcement agencies and other organizations must collaborate in establishing standards, particularly numbering standards, evidence labeling standards, and data exchange methodologies at the state and regional level. The report stated, “It is difficult, if not impossible, to envision the future of forensic evidence management enabled with AIT technology without creating standards.” NIST indicated there is currently no standardized process governing the consistent handling of property and evidence on a local, regional or state level within the United States. The way each law enforcement agency processes, stores, inventories, and disposes of evidence is unique to that agency. The lack of a standardized process presents a major difficulty for adoption of new technologies for the management and tracking of forensic evidence, since AIT solution vendors face the difficult dilemma of designing and engineering solutions for a non-standardized process. For example, NIST explained, “RFID solution vendors developed dock-door portal readers for use in warehousing shipping and receiving processes. RFID solution vendors were able to develop a solution for these processes because dock-door configurations and most shipping and receiving processes and the data transferred at each location are standardized across multiple industries.” Federal agencies such as NIST play a crucial role in facilitating the development of standards for law enforcement. The report recommended federal stakeholders collaborate in establishing an initiative or program to expand adoption of AIT technologies and, in particular, enable law enforcement’s use of AIT. “For law enforcement agencies to adopt the use of AIT to improve their property and evidence management processes, a foundation must be established that educates, promotes, and helps facilitate the fast path to using this technology by addressing the multiple barriers agencies face when making these improvements,” the report concluded. __._,_.___ ------------------------------ Posted by: "beowulf" <[email protected]> ------------------------------ Visit Your Group <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/grendelreport/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJmaDFydnMyBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzE0MTgyNTU4MzE-> [image: Yahoo! 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