Building a Border Database

nyone trying to smuggle migrant workers, weapons or drugs across the San Diego border should be forewarned: the federal government is using sophisticated geographic information systems to track movements, predict problem areas and stop illegal intrusions before they occur.

The Enforcement Technology Office in the San Diego sector of the Border Patrol, now part of the Homeland Security Department, uses a combination of technology from ESRI, a GIS company based in Redlands, Calif., and Leica Geosystems of Atlanta, Ga., to collect and store border-related data. The ground and aerial data is collected by the organization's border patrol officers and combined with data from the U.S. Geological Survey, National Imagery and Mapping Agency and state and local agencies.

"We can track where we have apprehended people to within 100 to 200 feet, and we might track 12,000 people within a six-month period," says John Block, supervisor of the Enforcement Technology Office. "We can have the system tell us, based on characteristics we feed into a model, who our likely smugglers are."

The group developed the system well before Sept. 11, but interest has grown since that time, says Daniel Isenberg, GIS leader in the Enforcement Technology Office. "What's changed is the amount of requests we get from other federal and local agencies to help them get to this level of GIS capability to do these types of detections," he says.

Today border patrol agents can access the system before starting their shifts, learning what apprehensions have occurred during a specified time frame and analyzing trends. With this information, agents can better position themselves at potential trouble spots, Block says.

Eventually, agents in the field will be issued wireless mobile data terminals. "They will be able to see where people are crossing in real time so they can go to that spot," Isenberg says. Field commanders will be able to direct agents via the mobile units, and agents will be able to add critical information to the database in real time, he says.