The Border Patrol has always used the most advanced technology available to support its patrol efforts. But this new center is the result of the confluence of a number of factors: first is the tremendous growth of the Laredo sector, especially its video surveillance program. Equally important was the Border Patrol’s move into the newly formed U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the requirement for sharing information and communications. This new environment gave the Border Patrol an expanded mission: not only maintaining the integrity of our borders against illegal immigration, but also intercepting terrorists and terrorist weapons. What finally made a difference in bringing it to fruition was having personnel with the vision and expertise to plan and build a sophisticated communications system. The design, engineering, and contracting for the system was accomplished in-house by Border Patrol agents and support staff.

Photo Credit: Gerald L. Nino

Border Patrol agents and LECAs monitor video screens for undocumented immigrants.

Silent sentinels

Cameras, monitors, land/mobile radios and telephones are extensions of an agent’s eyes and ears and serve as a virtual sentry patrolling multiple posts of duty. The centerpiece of the communications center is the video wall that consists of 14 individual 50-inch screens configured as a seamless virtual video wall. The 14 screens are mounted in a 2x7 pattern and can be divided, sized, and arranged to meet specific needs. The video wall screens are like windows looking out onto the border, where agents can literally watch the world go by. These virtual windows display high-resolution, real-time images transmitted from remote video surveillance cameras that are mounted at various points along the border. There are currently 19 sites monitored, but the system will be expanded to 36 by FY05. An agent or a law enforcement communications assistant (LECA) can control a camera remotely, moving it into place and focusing it on specific landmarks. The camera settings can be saved, and with a keystroke, the camera can be refocused on that particular view. This seemingly simple feature has profound implications for a patrol operation.

Let’s say that within the camera’s range are two locations that habitually get alien traffic, an agent or LECA can program the camera’s settings so that he or she can scroll through them to electronically patrol both sites and dispatch agents to intercept intruders.

Each screen shows a specific area that can be defined using geographic information system criteria. How this works is that the landscape has been inventoried so that every station, tower, helispot, call box, border light, fence, trail, railroad, and patrol beats have assigned coordinates. LECAs provide the coordinates to agents who can then go exactly where they are most needed—to intercept illegal immigrants or to save the life of someone in jeopardy.

Photo Credit: Gerald L. Nino

CBP Border Patrol Agent Douglas I. Standerfer reviews pre-set electronic check points for illegal immigrant activity at the Laredo, Tex., CBP Border Patrol Communication Center.

Asked if watching the monitors ever gets boring, Gloria Garza, a LECA at the communication center said, “No way, it’s very interesting work. It’s like watching a passing show. It’s exciting to alert a patrol to a crossing area and then watch them make an intercept.” Garza said many of the smugglers even know there are cameras and sensors along their border crossing areas, but they continue to attempt crossings. Staying alert is critical, Garza explained, since smugglers use every trick in the book to get people across, even staging decoy crossings to divert attention from the real crossing attempt.

Technology–a virtual buddy

Mike Knowles, a Field Operations supervisor said, “In the past, Border Patrol agents relied solely on sign art—a traditional tracking method that relies on footprints or other evidence of intrusion on the landscape—to do their jobs. Now, technology—sensors, cameras, telecommunications—have made agent’s patrol efforts safer and more efficient.” Before technology, Border Patrol agents either worked alone or relied on the buddy system for safety and back-up. Working in the field they were isolated, and the solitude increased the threat of danger.

Radio technology was welcomed by the Border Patrol as a major advance for patrol efforts. A disembodied voice coming out of a radio receiver may not seem like much, but it became a “virtual buddy” for agents, providing information, support, and comfort. The Border Patrol fully embraced radio technology, providing walkie-talkies to agents, equipping vehicles with radio receivers, and establishing stations with communication rooms to centrally monitor patrol agents and provide a place where agents could check in and keep in contact with one another.

The Laredo sector had a communication room built in the 1960s that, before the renovation, was congested and housed four active consoles. The video displays were placed so that an agent could only see one or two of them at a time, there was little control of the videos, and the system had no failsafe feature. The center monitored the remote surveillance cameras and sensor activity, coordinated land mobile communications, and ran national checks through the Central Index System and the Texas Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, each from a different terminal. When an agent apprehended an illegal immigrant, the LECA would run these checks and then radio or telephone the agent in the field of the results.

Can you hear me now?

The new communication center is capable of using and sharing information in a different paradigm. It is designed to operate in an environment that contemplates the disruption of whole segments of a public communication system. In the event of a large-scale power outage, the system has an uninterrupted power supply powered by an emergency generator for backup. In addition, redundant systems, the techno term for backup, were installed for radio and telephone capability should the primary radio or regular telephone wire service be interrupted. The back-up telephone system is a “voice over internet protocol” telephone service, which means that communications go over a data network instead of over traditional telephone lines. Since the center runs its own high-speed circuits and does not depend on public circuits, if the public telephone communication system were interrupted, this system could fill the void taking over communications and linking to other sectors or cities. The center could support more than 1,500 agents, the number that 37 communication sites currently service.

From the new center, LECAs can monitor cameras and sensors, run automated criminal checks, and communicate with agents who need not move from their terminal. Because the center utilizes microwave and fiber-optic communication technology, it has also made what was seen as far-fetched, a reality—field processing. Vehicles can now be equipped with a video terminal that will allow an agent to run an apprehended immigrant through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT). The IDENT system rapidly identifies individuals by electronically comparing a live-scanned fingerprint against a previously digitally captured or scanned fingerprint. The right and left index fingerprints are scanned and transmitted electronically to a centralized biometric database for query. In the past, the only option was for a detainee to be brought to a station for processing. In addition, agents will be able to run the TECS and NCIS checks in the field.

CBP Commissioner Bonner visited the center in April and was impressed with it’s capabilities and with the potential communication support the center could provide for CBP. Chief Patrol Agent John W. Montoya, Chief of the Laredo Sector, sees the center as proof that a sophisticated twenty-first century communication system is within reach of Border Patrol sectors throughout the country. Chief Montoya said, “The communication center is not a Laredo sector success, but a success for CBP. It is a platform that can serve as a national standard but be customized to meet the local needs of Border Patrol sectors and of CBP.” LK