Measures followed by a country’s or bloc of countries’ border control forces enable the movement of goods, people and animals to be regulated by nations. There are many examples of technology which have provided border control forces with a helping hand to carry out their incredibly important work effectively, with the following just three standout examples…

Drones & holographic printers

According to a report by VICE, $1 million holographic printers by Zebra Imaging were now being utilised at Border Control stations in El Paso, San Diego and Tucson.

The technology allows a person or a drone to capture an aerial photograph of a border that’s being investigated, claims a spokesperson from Zebra Imaging. That photo is then printed using the holographic printer, which can then be used to gain a better understanding of the landscape and to deploy effective missions if necessary.

Rick Black, the Director of Government Relations at Zebra Imaging, commented:

"Holograms do not save lives and they do not stop bullets, but what they do is give people a cognitive idea of what's going on around them physically.”

The D3S wearable RIID

The D3S wearable RIID has been created by international technology group Kromek. It’s already been deployed by the New Jersey Port Authority and followed the President of the United States on one of his trips to Europe.

It’s claimed that the radiation monitoring device is more powerful than a standard RIID (short for a Radiation Isotope Identification Device). Furthermore, this piece of technology is designed to detect radiological threats such as radioactive contamination, dirty bombs, radiation at the scene of an accident or a terrorist attack, and the smuggling of radioactive substances.

Another eye-catching aspect of Kromek’s D3S wearable RIID is that it’s an unobtrusive and hands-free piece of technology. Simply turn the detector on and then launch the accompanying app on your smartphone and the gadget will continuously scan for radiation without anyone needing to see it in operation or potential suspects to get suspicious.

The Internet of Things

Global management consulting and professional services firm Accenture has acknowledged that custom agencies can be using the Internet of Things to enhance their operations.

Germany’s Hamburg Port Authority has been used by Accenture as a case in point. This is due to the organisation utilising the technology to improve how they monitor cargo and track journeys. Data is collected by the authority from sensors which are embedded into bridges, containers, roadways and vehicles, and then analysed. Once the analysis is complete, the findings can be delivered to officers remotely, as well as fed into schedules and assisting road authorities to channel traffic in more effective manners.

Data recorded from IoT operations can also be analysed in order to find examples of fraud and other crimes. Accenture explains:

“For instance, IoT can check whether cargo actually moves along the declared routes or detect potential tampering by tracking unexpected temperature changes in containers.”