Homeland Security delays plan to place sensors on Mexican border
According to CBP, it hasn’t been canceled outright — but it has been delayed for much, if not most, of 2013. The problem: The sensors can’t talk to the rest of the tech along the border. “We’ve determined that we need to resolve issues with saturated radio frequencies, limited bandwidth and system integration with the existing CBP infrastructure,” Jenny Burke, a public affairs officer with CBP, tells Danger Room. The agency will try again to replace its aging sensors “within the next six to nine months.”
The delay is only the latest set of woes for the border security program. In recent months, it’s has been reportedly beset by delays and changing requirements, and the agency as a whole has been reportedly short-staffed and plagued by budget cuts.
The sensors are also supposed to be tough. They have to able to survive in extreme weather, and be finely tuned enough to distinguish between individuals and groups of people, as well as telling people apart from animals. Finally, CBP wants the sensors to spot vehicles, and tell different vehicles apart from each other, like in spotting whether a vehicle is a truck or actually a motorcycle.
Blowback
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What for? Or, do they mean attached to a gun turret or something?
besser tot als rot on February 11, 2013 at 5:45 PM
Gee, didn’t see this one coming.
Mark1971 on February 11, 2013 at 5:47 PM
Got to allow as many illegals as possible to cross the border before cracking down for the amnesty bill.
Charlemagne on February 11, 2013 at 5:54 PM
Fences and walls have worked for thousands of years.
SirGawain on February 11, 2013 at 5:57 PM
Set out welfare sign-up pamphlets and democrat voter registration cards in postage paid envelopes. The least they can do is mail them in.
trs on February 11, 2013 at 6:08 PM
What, at this point, does it matter?
Dusty on February 11, 2013 at 6:13 PM
Give’m a break… they’re really busy finding places to stash all the ammo they’ve been buying.
CPT. Charles on February 11, 2013 at 6:21 PM
It seems to me that border security, by its very definition, should be immune to budget cuts.
OldEnglish on February 11, 2013 at 6:31 PM
Obama probably wants this to be part of his compromise on border security and if it is already implemented then he would have to compromise on doing something else.
Wigglesworth on February 11, 2013 at 6:41 PM
Try and walk around this large air base near Groom Lake, NV. I think you will find their ground sensors work extremely well there. There is a lack of something in this border security tech problem alright, a lack of will.
Neo on February 11, 2013 at 6:46 PM
They’re focused on hoarding munitions to use against The People than to worry about any of those undocumented invaders.
viking01 on February 11, 2013 at 7:10 PM