USPS expands digital fingerprinting at hundreds of post offices

The U.S. Postal Service is expanding the digital fingerprinting service it offers the public to hundreds of new post offices this year.

USPS struck a deal with French security company IDEMIA to bring its biometric capture and in-person proofing services to between 400 and 500 post offices, out of 31,000, by the end of 2021.

The financially ailing agency wants to use its nationwide retail network to generate more revenue, while also meeting its five-year strategic goal to improve people’s access to e-government services.

“We’ll be able to scale at whatever pace they want to once the initial solution is delivered,” Shane Powers, vice president of operations at IDEMIA National Security Solutions, told FedScoop.

The FBI introduced an electronic departmental order several years ago requiring USPS to conduct identity history summary checks (IDHSCs) of potential employees. The process required fingerprints be sent in, which took weeks.

So USPS launched a digital fingerprinting pilot with the FBI two years ago and found the new service took hours with a high return on investment. All searches go through the FBI’s system.

USPS hopes to extend digital fingerprinting to other federal agencies as well, making it a bigger player within the employee vetting space across government.

“I think we’re going to see other agencies look at this model as well,” Powers said.