ACCURATE ASSESSMENT

May 1, 2002 12:00 PM, By DON STURGIS

When the State of Jalisco, Mexico, was looking to combat auto theft and forgery of driver's licenses and vehicle registrations, officials had four fundamental requirements:

• to create a broad and reliable database of all vehicles and drivers in the state;

• to design an issuance system that produces traceable and non-forgeable vehicle registrations and driver's licenses;

• to make non-authorized documents impossible; and

• to audit all document inspections, including those of law enforcement.

In its jurisdiction of 6 million people, the State of Jalisco also needed a system that would eliminate opportunities for department employees, law enforcement officials or others to circumvent the system for their own personal gain. To achieve its goal, the Jalisco Department of Transportation deployed the Pegasus WPX Vehicle Theft Control System developed by Miami-based WernerPegasus Corp.

The corruption-proof application combines optical coding, portable scanners and smart card technology. It aids in recovering a vast percentage of stolen cars in the Jalisco jurisdiction, and has reduced vehicle recovery time from 10 months to less than two months. The system has also helped to eliminate internal corruption in the issuance of driver's licenses and vehicle registrations.

OPTICAL CODED VEHICLE STICKER

In the Pegasus system, special stickers containing non-forgeable optical codes are placed on every registered vehicle for identification purposes. In the field, police officers scan the codes on vehicles in public areas using specialized handheld scanners with built-in smart card technology. The optical code on the sticker contains basic identification information about the vehicle: make, year, style (2-door, 4-door, etc.), color, license plate and serial number. The optical code also identifies the issuing site of the sticker, the operator who initiated the printing and the time and date of printing.

The scanners include a database of information on up to 96 million vehicles sought by law enforcement officials for reasons ranging from theft to hit-and-run involvement, unpaid vehicle fees and traffic tickets.

Every time a scanned vehicle matches the violations database, the match is recorded in the unit as well as on the smart card the officer uses to activate the scanner. Thus, an officer cannot ignore a flagged vehicle without having that action exposed upon returning to the office. Vehicle registration cards are equipped with a similar optical code.

Says Carlos Tiscareno, statewide administrator of the Pegasus WPX system in Jalisco: “[Police corruption is] detected by the system itself. The procedures themselves impede any officer from failing to report a stolen vehicle he finds. Everything is stored in the verifying portable [Pegasus scanner], and the officer cannot change that information once the scan is done.

“There has not been a single case of a forged vehicle document or driver's license from day one, in 1999,” he continued. “Official results [indicate] that during the first 18 months, 3600 vehicles were detected for various reasons and recovered.”

OPTICAL CODED DRIVER'S LICENSE

A secure optical code strip is laminated in a Jalisco driver's license. The data on this optical code contains basic identification data about the individual: height, sex, date of birth, skin and eye color, the issuing site of the license, the operator who initiated the printing, and the time and date of printing.

The ability to issue non-forgeable documents has proven so successful that Jalisco has issued more than 700,000 driver's licenses with the Pegasus WPX system in more than four years without a single case of a forged or unaccounted document. Because of this, a Jalisco driver's license is the only Mexican license accepted by banks as a valid ID.

THE SYSTEM

The Jalisco Vehicle Theft Control Systems are comprised of two basic functions: controlled issuance and printing of documents, and a systematic verification of these documents.

A central computer contains Pegasus code encryption software and a redundant database for vehicles and drivers. To combat illegal issuance of registrations and driver's licenses, biometric technology is used. Before a document can be issued, the system operator must activate the system using a smart card and fingerprint.

Data in the smart card provides the authorization level for the operator, indicating what types of documents the operator can produce and when they can be produced, along with an expiration date when the card is no longer valid. The card must remain in the reader at all times for the system to operate. In turn, the computer stores all operator logins and an issuance summary on the smart card. Each operator is fully responsible for his/her work, and any illegally issued item can be instantly traced back to the issuing operator.

The heart of the system is the high-security-level optical code that incorporates logical and optical encryption techniques. WernerPegasus officials say that the same data could be printed 16 million times (with the optical code containing the same information) and each printed code would look different, but would decode to the same data. The scanner is designed for rugged use, and designers say the unit can be dropped on a concrete floor from a height of 6 feet without being damaged.

The database of violating vehicles and drivers and a list of sites and/or operators who have produced falsified documents are transmitted to personal computers in the offices that distribute the portable scanners. This data transfer can only begin when the scanner operator has his/her smart card inserted in the scanner.

THE SYSTEM GAINS POPULARITY

Says Francisco Ramirez Acuña, governor of Jalisco: “We are at the forefront — not only in Mexico, but worldwide — in the application of technology to detect and recover stolen vehicles.”

The success of the Jalisco application has prompted Sonora, Mexico, to install the system. Four other Mexican states are beginning to implement their own Pegasus systems and 14 others are studying the possibilities of its implementation.

BENEFITS TO LAW ENFORCEMENT

More benefits of the systems can be seen in the vehicle inspection process. The vehicle registration sticker that is applied to the window allows more cars to be inspected in a brief period of time. Because inspection of unoccupied vehicles is possible, law enforcement inspections do not disturb holders of valid registrations.

When a stolen vehicle is identified, officers can request reinforcement and wait for the driver to return to the vehicle, making a low risk apprehension possible.

OTHER APPLICATIONS

The same Pegasus system techniques were used in Mexico for two other high visibility events. One million passes and 40,000 badges printed with the optical security code were issued and produced in less than three weeks during the Pope's visit to Mexico in 1999. The badges, which were verified by 350 portable scanning units, were required for admittance. More than 2.2 million scans were performed in three days.

The reunion of Presidents Clinton and Zedillo in Yucatan, Mexico in 1999 created a need for 45,000 optical coded badges to be created in less than three days. All U.S. and foreign security officers had their badges scanned and checked for access privileges at various locations during the three-day event.

With every scan, the operator received an immediate display regarding the status and access privileges of the document holder. All of the scans were stored in the unit's non-volatile memory for subsequent downloading to a computer for evaluations by superiors and internal affairs. Since the scanner operator must have a personal smart card inserted in the scanner for operation, that ID is recorded as part of each transaction.

FOR THE RECORD

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Don Sturgis is a senior consultant with Ray Bernard Consulting Services. He has 27 years of security experience centering around identifying specific facility needs and finding the right technology to fit them. Visit http://www.go-rbcs.com.

ABOUT THE COMPANIES

For information, please circle the appropriate Reader Service number (listed below) on one of the Reader Service cards in the issue or visit infoLINK at www.securitysolutions.com.

WernerPegasus Corp.

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