WASHINGTON — Changes are coming to how drivers enter the gates at Fort Belvoir as the base phases in a new ID scanner system.
Don Dees, a Fort Belvoir spokesman, says certain gates at Belvoir will start using a new Automated Installation Entry (AIE) system beginning this weekend.
Drivers will put their Department of Defense identification into a scanner at the gate which will be verified for credentials. “And then the gate arm will come up and the car will be allowed to enter into the installation,” Dees says.
The guards, who will still man the gates, will check to make sure the driver matches the photo in the AIE database. That database draws from the DEERS enrollment system (DEERS database contains information for each Uniformed Service member). The scanned picture ID comes up on a computer screen in the guard booth and a camera on the scanner machine provides video of the driver.
But the new ID scanner is not going to be at all the gates, at least not yet. “We want to get it done within a couple of months but the timetable right now is very flexible. The important thing to note is that beginning now we’re starting to add gates gradually for the automated system entry process. And we know there’s going to be a learning curve. So we’re just asking for a little bit of patience and understanding that this is going to make it a safer community for all of us,” Dees says.
He adds one of the first gates using the automated ID scanner entry system is the airfield gate at Davison Army Airfield. “It’s a very low traffic gate and by starting on a weekend we further reduce the number of cars per day that we would have to deal with as the guards learn the system,” he says.
This is really a testing phase for the system but once things are ramped up even civilians will have to be scanned in. But for now civilian just enter as they normally would through Tulley Gate between 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The AIE is an Army-wide initiative says Jeff Nesmeyer, Fort Belvoir chief of physical security. “It’s going to enhance our security at our gates by verifying that the ID that’s presented by the individual is in fact legitimate and actually it’s their own in the most efficient and effective manner that is possible,” he says.
Dees adds that there’s going to be a learning curve. “So we’re just asking for a little bit of patience and understanding that this is going to make it a safer community for all of us,” he says.
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