New Smart Border Technologies for maximum effectiveness of enforcement personnel

In 2024, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Much has changed since the country's first CBP agents got their revolver, a shiny badge, and had to get on their own horse to patrol on the 7500 miles of US land borders. Nowadays, agents use many vehicle-based technologies as well as land-based radar, video camera surveillance, and aerial reconnaissance to carry out their daily jobs.

These technological advances, combined with a huge increase in agents, have led to strong improvements in border security, but we're not even close to a completely secure border.

At the borders and exit ports, the latest technological advancements in biometrics have allowed for mass surveillance and identification of anyone passing through, but in the past, those tools weren't available for agents in the field. With recent advances in cameras, scanners, and software, it is now possible for agents to use scanning and biometric identification technology anywhere they go.

Today's mobile rugged tablets designed for law enforcement, like RuggON's Rextorm PX501, feature many scanners that reduce the time needed for tasks like ID scanning and identity verification.

Biometrics information is key to national security

While border security has improved over the past decade, criminal organizations have also increased their efforts to challenge the systems that keep us safe. We've seen a rise in the quality of forged IDs which are indiscernible from real by the naked eye.

It is that force of ever-increasing efforts by malicious parties that has driven the need for better technologies, especially Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based Biometrics. Today's prime solutions integrate both modern and new technologies to reduce cost and make adaptation easier for agents who are already familiar with current solutions.

With the DHS moving to more advanced levels of biometrics, fingerprint scanning (FBI Mobile ID FAP10) and facial recognition have become a vital part of an agent's toolkit. A rugged tablet equipped with fingerprint scanner can verify prints against the IAFIS fingerprint database while the tablet's onboard camera, with the right software, can perform facial recognition.

Today's cameras and software are of such a high quality that individual scanning can result in a 99.9% positive identification rate in a fraction of a second. With just 0.01% of false positives, the reliability of these techniques is higher than ever and time spent verifying an identity is reduced to a minimum.

Cyber defense

Hacking remains a constant issue no matter what kind of electronic solution is used, as the benefits for a hacker could outweigh all the efforts they put into it.

While many manufacturers have highlighted their security and encryption features of their devices, few can actually tell its users on what to do if their devices get hacked, let alone tell a field agent what to do when they suspect a hacker is trying to access data on his equipment. After all, access to any device used by our agents could mean potential access to sensitive data, such as biometrics data, state ID information, driver licenses, etc.

Additionally, with today's rugged tablets also capable of controlling both private and military drones, being able to securely wipe a device before it falls in the wrong hands is essential. An example of this is a Secure-Wipe button, a "kill-switch". Such a button wipes out data on the tablet's internal SSD drive using U.S. DoD 5220.22-M standards in mere seconds, ensuring no sensitive information gets left behind in case of an emergency.

CBP as an extension of the Drug Enforcement Administration

Besides biometric scanners, having a 3D-capable Camera helps agents quickly count or measure cargo. Combined with traditional scanning methods, this has resulted in fast and non-invasive scanning and verification of cargo. Thanks to AI, tech's latest buzzword, we can expect huge advancements in object scanning and identification through 3D cameras. Field agents can enjoy the benefits of the latest software and scanners to get visual and audio queues when scanned cargo doesn't match the data entered from, for instance, a bill of lading.

Meeting the requirements of a Border Patrol Agent