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GCN Home > February 7, 2000 issue

Immigration service patrols with sensors and video

Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System combines detection and data to improve border security

By Shruti Daté
GCN Staff

The Immigration and Naturalization Service’s Border Patrol is using a combination of ground sensors and video data to help prevent contraband and illegal immigrants from crossing U.S. borders.

Walt Drabik, INS’ Electronics Systems Section chief, has nurtured the Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System since 1995. As ISIS has evolved, its technology has matured to provide additional capabilities, he said.

The Intelligent Computer-Aided Detection system, which predates ISIS by several years, makes the data flowing from the remote ISIS equipment intelligible, said David Messier, the service’s ICAD program manager.

Florinda Gonzales, a communications assistant at the Border Patrol station in Laredo, Texas, monitors ICAD and ISIS to help field agents apprehend people trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.


INS recently began implementing the third version of ICAD nationally.

Border Patrol assistant chief Bruce Cook said ISIS serves as the extended eyes and ears of agents whose duties are stretched too far.

On their own

Drabik said that when he took charge of the ISIS project four years ago INS relied mostly on its 4,800 Border Patrol officers to guard 8,000 miles of border. Only a handful of cameras and decade-old sensors supported the agents.

ISIS, developed with International Microwave Corp. of East Norwalk, Conn., adds technological prowess to the Border Patrol’s efforts.

The patrol now has 13,000 seismic, magnetic and infrared ground sensors along the borders, Drabik said.

The sensors can detect movement and heat sources within a 50-foot radius and metal within 250 feet, he said.

The Border Patrol has also installed 73 high-resolution and infrared cameras on poles. Agents at Border Patrol stations in 21 sectors remotely control the cameras, which scan up to a five-mile radius.

The combination of cameras and sensors tells the agents the location of any activity, the number of people and whether they are armed.

These critical bits of information help station agents decide which officers to dispatch.

ISIS supplies a higher degree of safety for agents and the people attempting illegal entrance, Cooke said.

“The majority of people we catch crossing the border are decent people coming for economic reasons, and we don’t want to lose sight of that,” he said. “But we need to protect our sovereignty as well.”

Agents at border stations must interpret images from the cameras visually. ICAD filters and analyzes information flowing from the remote sensors, Messier said. He has worked on ICAD since 1989, adding capabilities as new technology became available.

The Border Patrol deployed ICAD II in early 1994. The system runs under IBM OS/2 on PCs, which provide a user-friendly interface and multitasking environment, Messier said.

Messier said that added storage capacity also prompted the upgrade. ICAD II can provide analysis of any one of more than 100,000 records within minutes.



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