Fingerprint Scans Shorten Security Waits At Detroit, Other Ballparks

DETROIT, MI — Getting into Comerica Park to catch a Detroit Tigers game is as simple as raising a finger under a new fingerprint identification system that allows people to move through security lines more quickly. The stadium is one of the first nationwide to get the biometric scanners from New York-based Clear, which has installed the technology in 30 major airports around the country, including the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

The Fast Access fingerprint ID system was used for the first time at Comerica Park’s main gate on Monday. Clear is also in talks to bring the biometrics technology to Ford Field and Little Caesars Arena.

By installing the system at Comerica Park, the Detroit Tigers organization is responding to a top frustration among baseball fans that ever-tighter security procedures take some of the fun out of watching a game.

Using the system requires one-time registration of your fingerprints. A registration kiosk at Comerica Park will be staffed on game days, registration takes about five minutes. You’ll need your ID, and you’ll be asked a series of questions. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Detroit Patch, and click here to find your local Michigan Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

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All 10 fingers are scanned, but you’ll only need to swipe one — the same way you unlock your smartphone — to bypass the security line, the Detroit Free Press reported. For a fee, the technology can be used at other venues, like airports, where it has been enabled.

Under the system Clear has installed at Comerica Park, one registered adult with a ticket can bring one unregistered, ticketed adult and an unlimited number of unregistered, ticketed children through the security system — a reward for season ticket-holders, as well as an incentive to register their fingerprints . More fingerprint entry gates will be added as users increase, and the company is working to expand the technology “to other uses inside the venue that will continue to transform the game-day experience,” Clear CEO Caryn Seidman-Becker said.

“As we continue to identify opportunities to enhance the game-day experience, Clear provides us with an enhancement whereas patrons can enter Comerica Park in a quicker and convenient manner, without compromising their safety and security,” Mike Healy, the Tigers' vice president of ballpark operations, told the Free Press. “The implementation of Clear’s platform speaks to our ongoing technological initiatives to provide a world-class entertainment experience for our patrons.”

Other MLB teams using the technology include the Yankees and Mets in New York, the Miami Marlins and the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies the first teams to use the fingerprint access technology. The Miami Heat NBA team uses the technology at American Airlines Arena.

At airports, the technology has cut TSA line wait times by 30 to 40 percent, Clear told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Clear says its technology is secure, impervious to hackers, and holds a Department of Homeland Security Safety Act certification.

(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)