Border securityBorder Patrol relies in obsolescent surveillance gear
An Obama administration plan to update equipment the Border Patrol is using did not materialize, and now officials are concerned about outdated equipment putting the lives of agents in danger; the sensors now in use were originally said to be able to put Border Patrol agents in position to capture 90 percent of border invaders, but the DHS inspector general determined that just 4 percent of the alarms were confirmed cases of smugglers and border crossers; 34 percent were false alarms, and 62 percent were undetermined
On 2 October, a false alarm from a ground sensor sent U.S. Border Patrol agents to a remote canyon in Arizona shortly after midnight. For unknown reason agents opened fire on one another, an exchange in which one agent was killed and nother wounded.
An Obama administration plan to update equipment the Border Patrol is using did not materialize, and now officials are concerned about outdated equipment putting the lives of agents in danger.
Representative Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi), the senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, says the government “must replace outdated sensors with more modern, effective technology that can assist the Border Patrol in securing our borders while not sending agents into the field unnecessarily.”
The Los Angeles Times reports that the Border Surveillance Technology Plan was started in January and projected to cost $1.5 billion over ten years, but DHS has spent just a fraction of the $330 million Congress allocated to the program on new equipment.
According to the Times, the purchases have been stalled in the acquisitions office at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is seen as understaffed after a series of congressionally mandated cuts.
Stewart Baker, the former head of policy for DHS does not understand the delay. “We could do a lot more technologically on the border than we have done, and it’s a tragedy that we haven’t done it,” Baker told the Times. “We have let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” he said.
The existing sensors were designated to be replaced during the Secure Border Initiative (SBINet). Originally the sensors were said to be able to put Border Patrol agents in position to capture 90 percent of border invaders, but the DHS inspector general determined that just 4 percent of the alarms were confirmed cases of smugglers and border crossers; 34 percent were false alarms, and 62 percent were undetermined.
SBINet was shut down two years ago after $1.1 billion was spent and a network of cameras covered just seventy-two miles of the 2,000 mile border.
In November 2011, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) determined that Customs and Border Protection technology experts did not determine why specific technologies were necessary under the plan and whether these technologies would be successful, prompting officials to rewrite requirements for the program.
“A measured approach is necessary and should be commended given the management failures that have led to billions of taxpayer dollars wasted,” Representative Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told the Times. “But that doesn’t justify a 20-month delay,” McCaul said. “This demonstrates that management failures negatively impact the department’s ability to carry out its core mission of protecting the homeland,” he said.
Newer sensors use seismometers, metal detectors, microphones, and infrared cameras that can determine the difference between animals, humans, and vehicles. These sensors are currently used the military in Afghanistan, but are not being used by Border Patrol agents.
For Shawn Moran, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, the sensors that are used in Border Patrol are paramount to the security of the border. “We want it to be a proven technology, one that has a high probability of success,” Moran told the Times.
