HIDALGO, Texas (Border Report) — When President Joe Biden visited the South Texas border last week, he took a moment to study an unusual-looking camera system mounted on the back of a pickup truck.
It’s called a mobile video surveillance system, but Border Patrol agents commonly call them “scope” trucks because of the long retractable telescoping mast atop of which the elaborate camera system sits.
The cameras — one type for day and one for night — allow agents to for about 7 miles and are equipped with ground radar.
Biden reportedly asked about the system when he walked along the Rio Grande with Border Patrol officials on Feb. 29, according to media who were traveling with him.
Biden is expected to talk about border security during his State of the Union address on Thursday night, he very well could bring up the cameras.
Border Report has learned that the Department of Homeland Security is asking for $41.5 million in funds in Fiscal Year 2024 for mobile video surveillance systems to deploy the units on the U.S. borders. That’s nearly double the $28 million that the agency allocated for the systems in Fiscal 2021 when they were first coming online.
The technology was heavily talked about four years ago just before COVID-19 struck.
During the March 2020 Border Security Expo in San Antonio, officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection touted the benefits that this movable surveillance system could have on the Southwest border, and they said it was the technology of the future, available at the time, to help agents and border communities stay safe.
Relocatable mobile surveillance towers “make sure when we deploy an agent it is on the right threat and the right time,” then-U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott told expo participants.
“Reliable imaging can be relocated very rapidly and useful in rural terrain,” then-U.S. Customs and Border Protection Deputy Commissioner Robert Perez said.
Bobby Brown at the time worked for Elbit Systems of America, which designed the camera equipment.
He said the cameras can pick up an image 20 kilometers away, and it takes only four minutes for agents to set up.
“The operator/agent pulls up, puts it in park and pushes one button and the system deploys; never has to leave the cab,” Brown told Border Report.
On Thursday, Border Report located a scope truck with the mobile video surveillance system mounted on it along a section of border wall in Hidalgo, Texas. When the scope is down it looks practically like any other pickup, but when fully extended the cameras sit atop a long neck that allows law enforcement to safely scan the horizon.
“The operator gets a target that they’re interested in. They click on it and the cameras work independently to cue and slue to that target and the agent can make a determination. ‘Oh, it’s a person, I need to track it,'” Brown explained.
The cameras can operate off renewable energy via battery packs charged by solar energy.
The funding is in an appropriation bill pending in Congress as part of the Fiscal Year 2024 budget.
Last week congressional leaders agreed to pass a continuing resolution to extend a vote on the budget, which could be held later this month, and averted a government shutdown.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
