Each week, I like to take a few minutes to talk about something important happening within the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T). Normally, I discuss new technologies, how we’re addressing a specific threats, or support we’re providing across the Homeland Security Enterprise. This week, I’m going to change things up and talk about one of our dedicated federal employees who was recently recognized for her work in making the nation safer and more resilient.
Last week AVISIAN Publishing – publishers of re:ID magazine and SecureIDNews —announced the winners of their inaugural Women in Biometrics Identity 2015 awards. S&T’s Patricia Wolfhope was one of five women selected – out of a pool of 50 – who exemplified “… the best attributes an industry can hope to find in its leaders — innovation, dedication and a mentoring spirit.”
Wolfhope, a biometrics program manager, oversees multiple biometrics programs for S&T such as iris, face, fingerprint readers and other devices that assist responders in obtaining accurate identifications in the field in near real-time— to determine if a person has a past criminal record or an active warrant.
Working closely with the law enforcement and first responder communities and other DHS operational components, she is responsible for designing, developing, integrating, testing and deploying biometric technologies directly to the field that positively affect how end-users perform their day-to-day jobs.
She has worked on several biometric projects including mobile latent fingerprint processing which led to the development of a mobile device that allows law enforcement to scan fingerprints at the scene of a crime and receive near real-time information on the fingerprints. This technology is currently being piloted by the Stockton California Police Department who use it to collect prints at the scene of an incident. Traditional technologies can take weeks or months, but with this device results are returned within minutes providing responders with potential matches.
Wolfhope is just one example of a dedicated team here at S&T; a team that constantly looks for ways to make our nation safer and more resilient and to find ways to keep our first responders and other law enforcement agents safer and help them do their jobs better, faster, and more efficiently.
In recognizing her, I am also recognizing the biometric technology she manages. Biometric technology that, as she describes it, “… identifys really bad people so agents can bring them to justice.”
I am proud to be surrounded by such dedicated people, like Patricia Wolfhope, and I am honored to recognize her in this manner.