Border Patrol uses wireless cameras originally intended to photograph wildlife

Thu, 2011-06-23 03:35 PM
By: Jacob Goodwin

The Spokane, WA, sector of the U.S. Border Patrol plans to purchase about 70 long-range wireless camera systems that were originally designed to photograph deer and other animals in the wild, but are now being used in a variety of security applications and as part of the war on terror.

The cameras will be supplied by Athens Technical Specialists, Inc., of Athens, OH, which markets individual cameras – as well as an integrated collection of as many as 30 cameras known as the BuckEye Cam CellBase – under the name BuckEye Cam.

David Moss, a DHS contracting officer, told Government Security News that the cameras are being used by the Border Patrol at several locations along the U.S.-Canadian border. In fact, CBP’s procurement of the cameras had not been publicly announced until the value of the most-recent purchase of approximately 70 cameras had exceeded a $25,000 threshold and required publication on the government’s Federal Business Opportunities Website.

“They don’t want people to know that we’re using them,â€