From the foregoing, it has been observed that border security is not only a collection of agencies and firms geared towards making money, but also has an outstanding role in the society[1]. These have been outlined below:
- Ensure utmost safety to the locals of a nation which faces immigration threats. Case in point, the European Nations have been covered with the likes of Borderline to ensure that they are free of any sort of drug or human trafficking which are a consequence of unlawful immigration.
- Typically, Dolphin security has shown great interest appertaining to the safety of immigrants by deploying an ocean-wide search to ensure that immigrants who risk their lives pacing via waterways remain safe.
Try and cover each and every security loophole which may be left unattended to. Such include the establishment of seismic surveillance systems[2].
Thales’ border surveillance system aims to improve the basic control and border management, owing to the fact that the security levels are daily depreciating. Basically, Thales’s goal is to offer impressive and quality services from standalone equipment, such as sensors, and work toward customizing services for the purposes of logistic support as well as training tools and services[3]. Thales wants to ensure that the present security levels are appraised and prepared for the future, tweaking the response time, detection, reception and optimal use of resources while achieving impressive results. On the norm, Thales is aimed at tailoring the current operations to conform to the IT line in a secure manner and coming with a modern and complete turnkey Integrated Border Management System[4]. Among the other border security agencies, Thales security agency, also has some flaws, such as, the agency works based on the assumption of a partnership amongst neighboring countries which is not always the case. Thicker and denser areas may be impenetrable, hindering operations as some radars may not re-route information back to the head office.
OptaSense aims for cost-effectiveness with the promised results. Moreover, OptaSense has a maturely set software technology, which makes it easier to install. Generally, OptaSense is intended to monitor the access routes for a more secure border environment, both in the roads and the forests. OptaSense tries to alter the asset deployment schema and come up with not only portable but also effective systems unlike what is currently available[5]. Generally, OptaSense does have a well-laid set of objectives, including try and eliminate the use of the existing fibers and offer a much better and secure way of providing data across nations. Moreover, extend the total coverage, capturing the more remote areas and ensuring the utmost security in the long haul. Unequivoclly, this specific agency does have a number of flaws, such as, many times, the software technology being used may be new to the user, and a few times the equipment has encountered a number of false alarms, making it unreliable in the event of real danger[6].
Typically, Airbus’ technology tries to tailor its operations to meet the needs of the users on demand. The Green and Blue security solutions, for instance, are impressive when it comes to the consumer pool of choice. One of the goals of Airbus is to deploy an artificial intelligence system which is capable of gathering, aggregating and evaluating data from numerous sources[7]. Airbus ensures that it has a predefined set of fixed and mobile command centers and information systems. Being one of the most impressive surveillance agencies, Airbus’ objective are to develop border sensitive networks which will be connected to command and control centers, to be “personal” in the sense that it can be able to offer the chance to make the sane decisions as a person would and to be the ultimate supplier of fully secure and encrypted end-to-end communication and data transfer. The key disadvantage of this establishment is it does not cater for the landlocked countries, as it is purely water-body oriented[8].
Situated in the European nations, Borderline focuses on two main technologies: European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) and smart border technology. EUROSUR is more of a perfectionist body, trying to better the heights of what is currently imminent, while smart border is a whole new technology. Basically, Borderline focuses on two main fields: EUROSUR and smart border. With the latter, it is possible to have artificial intelligence systems which would eliminate endless manpower which is currently seen along borders. Typically, the objectives of the firm are to develop, deploy and fund EUROSUR which simply tries to take the surveillance policy to a whole new level by being better, faster and more efficient[9]. In addition, to come up with the smart border technology which will possess the highest level of artificial intelligence and eliminate the need for manual monitoring or tweaking of the sensors. Following a keen analysis, it was observed that the smart border feature is purely a machine and it may be prone to errors, as it is not usually possible to be discriminative in terms of gender and age and even other errors may arise and the deployment of the system is limited within the European Union (EU) alone[10].
Unequivocally, of late, the chances of leaky borders and penetrable security has aroused quite an alarm. Basically, Westminister tries to assist in the provision of high-quality services pertaining to fencing and other physical mechanisms to prevent border encroachment. With Westminister it would be ideally easy to offer impressive laws along the border, which will curb any immigration or human trafficking[11]. Case-based research showed that the main objectives of Westminster are coming up with a mechanism to beat technological drawbacks, such as the development of solar powered border monitors and being able to cover both sea and land through the deployment of drones which are or rather will be accustomed to both environmental conditions. Typically, these are some of the disadvantages of this agency are the use of drones has been quite a disadvantage, as it would be not possible for a drone to be 100% neat when distinguishing between the right and wrong image captured. This agency basically focuses on the border sensitive areas, neglecting the other loopholes to human trafficking[12].
Typically, this agency focuses on improving the decision-making and diplomatic approach to solving matters pertaining to immigration. More so, it tries to ensure that it reduces the death tolls of illegal human trafficking through increased rescue operations. Dolphin is governed by what is referred to as EUROSUR to govern any sort of immigration along the waterways of the EU[13]. Being a sea-based surveillance agency, Dolphin aims to curb the number of people entering the EU borders undetected and increase the internal security level of the European nations by preventing cross-border crimes. Being a sea-based security agency, these are some of the disadvantages are the coverage is quite extensive. It is not easy to cover the mileage in the sea ways. It is typically only for the European nations[14].
Generally, Flir is all about portability and cost effectiveness. The technology brought forward by Flir is quite portable and of the highest quality. Usually, Flir aims to not only deliver but also provide reliable and cost-effective equipment. Flir is focused on ubiquitous technology or rather more portable technology. The likes of TacFLIR 280-HD and others along that line are taking the surveillance technology to a whole new level. Basically, the goals or objectives of Flir are to try to curb the perpetual false alarm rate which is experienced in most border security systems and to deploy a 360 surveillance system which will elevate the security level at large[15]. It was observed that the agency is too capital intensive to install the equipment, as opposed to the other agency and the false alarm rates are higher and hence not as reliable[16].
Established 2001, Army is one of the best and perchance most reliable border security agencies. Moreover, Army has a number of predefined projects, such as deploying pan or tilts, which are simply intended to provide the best short-range surveillance, managing surveillance in the azimuth and the elevation. This system is governed by a complex project solution, delivering impressive overall quality. The target areas are borders, airports and other catastrophic areas of interest. As a surveillance agency, Army tries to achieve the objectives to develop stationary and mobile multi-sensory systems by acting on the target quickly and in a flexible manner to achieve the intended goal. To use the new SAMBA technology to increase the level of security and protect areas from unwanted encroachment by unwanted personnel. Generally, the agency has quite a number of disadvantages, such as, it is basically tied to the Czech Republic and hence not open to other nations. The newly introduced SAMBA technology may be erroneous to some extent[17].
Basically, Radiobarrier is one of the best and perchance most impressive latest releases from POLUS- ST which offers impressive and timely technology. This security agency focuses on perfecting what it has already planned. Managed by Akademgorodok, this system delivers Radiobarrier with the latest technological advancements, making sure that all is set in place. Nevertheless, this establishment also does take care of deploying rapidly installable perimeters and critical infrastructure security. With that, it is the perfect system in the event of need for urgency. Generally, the mission statement or the objective of this establishment is to find solutions for any unresolved problems. Such are the invocation toward better pipeline security and perimeter protection. The main limitation of the establishment is that it is located and restricted within Russia. As such, it is not able to reach more markets[18].
Managed by one of the best departments, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and governed by Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System (ISIS), Global delivers the latest technology, such as drone-powered monitoring and impressive remote video surveillance (RVS). The key goal is to reach the most impenetrable parts. The key target of this agency is setting-up seismic powered sensors, which will unequivocally be a game changer to what is available at present[19]. Typically, the objectives of this specific organization are to offer more advanced remote video surveillance and physical sensors in conjunction with RVS and to establish underground sensors which will work based on the seismic waves principle to detect migration in the target areas. These are some of the limitations faced by the agency, such as, there are proximity limitations which is a great disadvantage and the camera and the sensors at times require manual tweaking, which is not as impressive[20].
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[ii] Sun, Z., Wang, P., Vuran, M. C., Al-Rodhaan, M. A., Al-Dhelaan, A. M., & Akyildiz, I. F. (2011). BorderSense: Border patrol through advanced wireless sensor networks. Ad Hoc Networks, 9(3), 468-477.
[iii] Kähloer, M. (2008). The european train control system in thales signalling solutions. Mechanics Transport Communications, 3, 2008.
[iv] Thalesgroup.com, (n.d.). Border surveillance system - Thales Group. [online] Available at: https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/worldwide/defence/border-surveillance-system [Accessed 23 May 2015].
[v] Owen, A., Duckworth, G., & Worsley, J. (2012, August). OptaSense: fibre optic distributed acoustic sensing for border monitoring. In Intelligence and Security Informatics Conference (EISIC), 2012 European (pp. 362-364). IEEE.
[vi] OptaSense, (n.d.). Border Monitoring | Border Protection | Military Road Transport. [online] Available at: http://www.optasense.com/our-solutions/borders-military/protecting-borders/ [Accessed 23 May 2015].
[vii] AŞAN, E. (2014). AGILE AND COLLABORATIVE SYSTEMS ENGINEERING(Doctoral dissertation, MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY).
[viii] Airbus Defence and Space, (n.d.). Border Surveillance & Control - Airbus Defence and Space. [online] Defenceandsecurity-airbusds.com. Available at: http://www.defenceandsecurity-airbusds.com/pl_PL/1283 [Accessed 23 May 2015].
[ix] Shields, P. (2010). ICTS and the European Union's Evolving Border Surveillance Architecture: A Critical Assessment. Observatorio (OBS*), 4(1).
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[xi] Marsh, L. D. J., & Force, O. C. H. T. T. (2007). Issues Impacting Human Trafficking Collaborations: A Local Law Enforcement Perspective. Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force. Westminster Police Department.
[xii] Westminster, (n.d.). Border Security System and Equipment, Perimeter Access Control and Surveillance. [online] Wi-ltd.com. Available at: http://www.wi-ltd.com/Solutions_by_Sector/Border_Security [Accessed 23 May 2015].
[xiii] Margarit, G. Operational activations of maritime surveillance services within the framework of MARISS, NEREIDS and SAGRES projects.
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[xv] Blazakie, J. (2004, January). Border security and unmanned aerial vehicles. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WASHINGTON DC CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE.
[xvi] FLIR Systems, (n.d.). FLIR Border Surveillance Products | FLIR Systems. [online] Flir.com. Available at: http://www.flir.com/surveillance/display/?id=64968 [Accessed 23 May 2015].
[xvii] Army, (n.d.). EVPU Defence - Monitoring and Surveillance Systems - Army Technology. [online] Army-technology.com. Available at: http://www.army-technology.com/contractors/surveillance/evpu-defence/ [Accessed 23 May 2015].
[xviii] Radio Barrier, (n.d.). Border Surveillance systems. [online] Radiobarrier.com. Available at: http://www.radiobarrier.com/border-surveillance-1/ [Accessed 23 May 2015].
[xx] Pike, J. (n.d.). ISIS. [online] Globalsecurity.org. Available at: http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/systems/isis.htm [Accessed 23 May 2015].
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