PORT TOWNSEND, Wash. - Intellicheck Mobilisa is a company you may start hearing more about. Others are getting the word. Just check its stock - up nearly 206 percent in the last 30 days.
Intellicheck Mobilisa does a number of things, most of it aimed at making things more secure. Right now, military bases are its biggest customers, so are ports.
The company says its products are even used to screen people before getting onto Air Force One. Its scanning technology puts tools directly into the hands of security and police officers who can check identification against some 140 lists of potential bad guys for further screening, and even arrest.
"We don't find the bomb, we find the bomber," says company CEO Nelson Ludlow.
A 6th generation resident of the Olympic Penninsula, Intellicheck Mobilisa is based in the historic port town of Port Townsend by choice. It does have additional offices in New York and right outside of Washignton, D.C.
Just how would the company's technology have spotted the terrorist who nearly set off a a bomb in his underwear aboard Northwest flight 253 on Christmas Day?
According to the government, the alleged terrorist had recently been added to a list of potential terrorists that was over half a million names long. The "no fly list" of known terorists that airlines rely on to deny people passage aboard aircraft is only a few thousand names long.
The problem was that only one list was checked - the "no fly list."
Ludlow says Intellicheck Mobilisa could have scanned the man's drivers license or passport and checked it against names on 140 different lists in a second, resulting in the man being pulled out for secondary screening, and that screening may have discovered the bomb.
The company's system will also spot fake ID's or find out of people have outstanding warrants or are on the FBI's wanted terrorists list. It will even call up photos as well as descriptions of individuals. Information can be downloaded into the scanner through a docking station, or connected wirelessly to servers containing the information.
Other tools will even scan biometrics - a finger print scanner that's part of the machine. Some of these devices are used to check TWIC cards, that are used by ports to verify the identities of people who work on the waterfront.
Ludlow, a former fighter pilot now a Ph.D.-equipped CEO, says the TSA is now evaluating one of its units.
