US becoming self-reliant in surveillance tech –2/3 of planned surveillance installations to be made with domestic tech

About the Towers¶ Currently, the map includes three primary styles of towers implemented by CBP: ¶ Integrated Fixed Towers (IFT). These structures are from vendor Elbit Systems of America, part of an Israeli corporation that has come under criticism for its role in surveillance in Palestine. Elbit previously was a subcontractor on the failed SBInet project, and has built many of the new towers at the same locations of the original SBInet towers. IFTs are exclusively found in Arizona, with several controversial towers installed on tribal lands owned by the Tohono O'odham nation. IFTs can reportedly detect a person up to 7.5 miles away. ¶ Remote Video Surveillance Systems (RVSS). These structures from vendor General Dynamics are most commonly, but not exclusively, found near the border fence. The platform at the top usually includes two sensor rigs with electro-optical and infrared cameras and a laser illuminator. The monopole version of the RVSS is found throughout the Southwest, but a new model— the "relocatable RVSS" (R-RVSS)—has been installed throughout the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas. RVSSs can reportedly detect a person up to 7.5 miles away, however the range may vary depending on the particular regional requirement.¶ Autonomous Surveillance Towers (AST). These "Sentry" towers are made by Anduril Industries, founded by Oculus creator Palmer Luckey. According to CBP, an AST "scans the environment with radar to detect movement, orients a camera to the location of the movement detected by the radar, and analyzes the imagery using algorithms to autonomously identify items of interest." In July 2020, CBP announced plans to acquire 200 of these towers by the end of Fiscal Year 2022, a deal worth $250 million. These towers are heavily concentrated in Southern California, with patches popping up in southern New Mexico and the Big Bend, Laredo, and Del Rio Border Patrol sectors in Texas. Because they are so new, and have yet to appear in updated, publicly available satellite imagery, we have only documented a small portion of these installations in our data set. ASTs can detect a person up to 1.7 miles away and a vehicle 2.2 miles away, according to company materials. ¶ The map also includes unusual and novel surveillance towers, such as a new Elbit tower that was installed on the Cochise County Community College campus and a tower installed on the property of Warren Buffet's son's ranch, both near Douglas, Ariz. Another Anduril tower was located 30 miles north of the San Diego border, where it watches the Pacific Ocean from the cliffs near the Del Mar dog beach. We have also included towers installed at inland border checkpoints as well as a number of towers of which we were unable to conclusively determine the models. ¶ We will continue to update and add to the data as we document new towers and technologies. If you are aware of a tower that isn't on our map, or know of a tower that has been relocated, please email aos@eff.org. ¶ Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs). We have also mapped out 39 Border Patrol checkpoints where ALPR systems have been installed, either by CBP or the Drug Enforcement Administration. These cameras collect the license plates of vehicles that pass, attach a timestamp and GPS coordinates, then upload that data to a searchable database. The data is stored for 15 years—far longer than the retention period of any state or local law enforcement agency. CBP's ALPR vendor, Perceptics, was breached in 2019, resulting in the leak of 105,000 license plate images. A year later, the Government Accountability Office concluded that only about half of border checkpoints were using ALPR systems as intended with a system for documenting the outcomes of secondary inspections of vehicles.