National Threat Assessment 2008. Organised Crime - Politie

5.8.6 Crime-related factors and expectations
For years people in the Netherlands and abroad have been trying to develop
a passport that cannot be forged or is very difficult to forge. Experts believe that
work should continue in this area. Focusing on tracking down passport forgers
is considered to be less efficient. By using biometric characteristics (such as iris
scans, facial scans and fingerprints) lending out and transferring passports to
someone else could be made useless in the future. At what point in time these
measures will become effective, depends on the pace of implementation in the
Netherlands and in other countries within and outside the European Union as
well. For the time being the authenticity of identity documents will be checked
primarily at the border and not so much in other situations in which false or
falsified identity documents are used.
5.8.7 Conclusion
The use of biometric data to prevent forgery of identity documents looks
promising. However, biometrics are not expected to be used widely in the next
four years. The introduction of biometrics keeps an uneven pace in countries
and is primarily applied to border crossing, at the moment. In the next four
years, forgeries will remain an important link in the logistics of various criminal
activities. Whenever false and falsified identity documents are used for fraud
a financial loss is always incurred. By assuming a false identity, criminals can
hinder investigations and stay out of reach of the authorities. In addition, the use
of false documents is detrimental to the trust in civil society and in the economy.
Together with the seriousness of the consequences and the fact that this
phenomenon is widespread, the manufacture and use of false and falsified
identity documents is qualified as a threat to Dutch society.
216 National Threat Assessment 2008 – Organised crime