Dear Colleagues,

Happy New Year!

Executive Order 14074 13(e) required that DHS and DOJ, with support from the White House Office of Science and Technology, produce a report on federal law enforcement use of biometrics with best practices for state, local and Tribal police. While the EO was published in May 2022, the Report was finally adjudicated and agreed upon this morning.

I did lead the production of the baseline report last March that was 127 pages. I cannot, however, take credit for its current organization or edits made subsequently. Much of the hardest work of this report was done by the FBI, DHS OBIM FI and S&T, DOJ and DHS Policy along with our mutual Privacy and Civil Liberties offices. I was grateful to NIST for reviewing and helping edit the standards sections. I will give specific credit to our colleagues Jason Ackleson and John Boyd for shepherding through a difficult process of negotiation at DHS, where I still sit. I did not produce the current best practices, although I would say they are largely delineated by good work already done at the state level and state police organizations. The best practices are not inclusive of the federal government. (That is me saying all of the above, and not speaking on behalf of DHS). 

For those of you at DOD, the EO only required that DHS and DOJ federal law enforcement biometric use cases be evaluated, thus the limitation on the discussion. However, the fact that this is a White House supported report makes its content of potential interest to all.

Janice