Looking North: controversial Secure Border Initiative demonstration program moving to Detroit.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: SECURITY BEAT: Homeland Defense Briefs

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Customs and Border Protection and Boeing Co. had a fitful and controversial start to their Project 28 border surveillance program.

Problems integrating commercial-off-the-shelf technologies caused a four-month delay and much consternation on Capitol Hill and at Department of Homeland Security headquarters.

CBP and Boeing will attempt a similar program beginning next year in the waterways near Detroit, DHS officials said at an Institute for Defense and Government Advancement border management conference.

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Secure Border Initiative Program Manager Kirk Evans said the "northern border demonstration" program will have its own set of challenges. It will not be able to simply migrate Project 28 technologies north.

Sensors and cameras will have to function in extreme cold, rather than the intense heat found at the Sasabe, Ariz., border area where Project 28 was set up. The area is marked by heavily trafficked waterways, 30-foot tall trees, million dollar homes and notorious smugglers' routes in the St. Clair River, which separates Michigan from Ontario.

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Rowdy Adams, SBI deputy director, noted that "there's little to no technology between the ports of entry" on the U.S. side of the border with Canada.

There are...