New High-Tech Devices Help Boost Border Security

By Kai Porter - Weekend Anchor/Reporter
Tuesday, August 16, 2011 - 6:21pm

EL PASO – The latest and greatest technology to help the U.S. monitor the border, identify people crossing, and detect threats was on display at the 8th Annual Border Security Conference at UTEP.

Among the gadgets was a prototype for a finger print scanner called “Finger on the Fly. It's a touch-less finger print scanner that can identify someone in seconds.

"We don't know where the threats are coming from but we need to identify those people and this is one way to do that," said Ramon Reyes, who works with MorphoTrak, the company that makes the scanner. He said "Finger on the Fly" is superior to current finger print scanners that require touch.

"With this, you don't have to do anything but glide your hand across and it captures all your 4 fingers."

Reyes also showed us a mobile identification device that can connect to a wireless database and match finger prints to a person.

"If I'm a police officer, I can capture your prints and see your rap sheet. And if you're on a wanted list will be shown on the screen," said Reyes.

And the technology is always changing. Experts estimate that the technology doubles every 18 months.

"Technology is key if we're going to have fewer people taking care of a huge amount of border," said Burns Cleland, the sales manager for E-Watch.

The company was displaying a state of the art, 80-megapixel camera called VistaCam. It can monitor a huge section of the border at once.

"What we have here is a video image that is 8 miles wide and 4 miles deep," Burns said while demonstrating the camera.

He said VistaCam can replace 20 to 30 regular cameras and allow one person to do a job that would normally take dozens of people.

"We can zoom into different areas. This is a picture of San Diego. You can see into the hangars and you can see the aircraft and people walking around on the tarmac and that's 4 miles away," he said.

VistaCam is already is use on the border. It is being tested in California by the Navy.

The “Finger on the Flyâ€