Border securityASU Publishes Report on Improving Border Security
A new study says that securing the flow of people, goods, and business between the United States and Mexico requires the integration and interconnectivity of communications technologies among and between ports, check points, and law enforcement agencies along the 1,969 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border
Arizona State University’s North American Center for Transborder Studies (NACTS) published a report which posits that securing the flow of people, goods, and business between the United States and Mexico requires the integration and interconnectivity of communications technologies among and between ports, check points, and law enforcement agencies along the 1,969 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. The report provides a cost-effective imperative to improving security, communications systems, and infrastructure along the border.
The ASU study, commissioned by Motorola Solutions Inc., stresses that in order to halt illegal crossings and contraband while expediting commerce through ports of entry, border field agents should have immediate access to time-sensitive information and intelligence captured by new technologies such as license plate readers, unattended ground sensors and biometric identification kits.
The study points to emerging communication technologies such as broadband that can play an important role in creating this needed linkage.
Rick Van Schoik, NACTS director stated “Through extensive research and analysis, we found that by leveraging emerging technologies with existing infrastructure and personnel, we can enhance border security and trade in a cost-effective manner that is beneficial to citizens in the United States and Mexico.”
The study proposes that DHS and CBP should be investing in communications and other Command, Control, Communications, Computing and Intelligence, Security, Reconnaissance (C4ISR) technologies in order to enhance the technology, infrastructure, and staff of the border security operation.
Additionally if the federal government invests proportionally in integrating communications, relative to other border security investments, we can expect to see a vast improvement in security and trade in this region,” said Schoik.
Key findings of the report include: “While many technologies are emerging, those that have application to border security are currently being applied,” and “No one border security technology works well everywhere.”
