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26 Law Enforcement Technology March 2015 www.officer.com PATROLLING BORDERS, PORTS AND AIR on that front. Technology is growing more compli- cated as well as more common. Officers now wear radiation detectors on their belts. In addition, says Milne, "Along the ports of entry we've added gamma imaging machines…where we can look into rail cars or big containers." Even trains go through radiation screening and testing. And in the field of biometrics, he says, finger scanning is routine when passports and visas are issued in con- nection with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. He says ePassports, the NEXUS program (a joint-U.S.- Canadian program that involves using biometrics to identify the enrollee) and other measures have upped the security ante when it comes to entering or leav- ing either country. The CBP faces enormous challenges in the future. One of the most challeng- ing is to target identifying the "people we want to identify (such as someone on the watch list) as opposed to the guy coming over to go to Wal-Mart. We want to separate the wheat from the chaff," says Milne. The Shiprider Program While the CBP handles the U.S. side of the enforcement house, Canada relies on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, which has jurisdiction from coast to coast in that country, including over the much-lauded Shiprider Program. Formally launched in 2013, this cross-border joint venture enforce- ment and security initiative employs both U.S. and Canadian ships that carry a fully-integrated crew from both countries. When the ship is in U.S. waters, it's subject to the laws of that country and a U.S. citizen is in command. When the ship moves into Canada's waters, a Canadian officer assumes command. Says Cross Borders Institute's Bill Anderson, "It's a good example on how working together really does work." r c h m Once considered mostly a military service, the Coast Guard integrates law enforcement duties into its operations, standing as one of the most signifcant resources in the prevention of smuggling and waterborne illegal entry into the U.S. the CBP says on its website that, "on a typical day, CBP welcomes a million visitors, screens more than 67,000 cargo containers, arrests more than 1,100 individuals and seizes nearly 6 tons of illicit drugs." And they do it while work- ing with hundreds, if not thousands, of jurisdictional issues—many of them international. The agency itself W hile CBP works all fronts along the U.S. border; it's the couple thousand miles dividing this country from Mexico that capture the hot bright lights of the press and the lion's share of the public's attention. Although ille- gal immigration isn't as big an issue for those who man the U.S.-Canadian bor- der, the CBP currently faces mounting concerns over terrorism and the need to develop new cutting-edge strategies to detect possible threats to this coun- try's security, while making the process more streamlined for both commercial and private travelers. So they're look- ing at employing technologies that can offer solutions to both concerns. Milne says the agency has come a long way Another bridge to Canada While numerous points of entry between the U.S. and Canada already exist, Detroit holds the honor of being one of the busiest immigration thruways between the two countries. In fact, fully one-fourth of all trade between the U.S. and Canada takes place between the Motor City and its just-across-the-border sister city, Windsor. Because of the crushing amount of traffic between the two countries, U.S. and Canadian officials hope to collaborate and build a new bridge that will connect the two coun- tries, as well as provide a more techno- logically sound portal for both travelers and commerce. In 2013, the U.S. State Department issued a presidential permit in con- nection with the construction of a bridge tying Detroit and Windsor via a new $2.1-billion International Trade Crossing. The collaborative project would supersede the Ambassador Bridge, a privately owned span that currently serves the Detroit-Windsor crossing. The Ambassador has monop- olized border traffic in that area since 1929. The bridge's owner has sued unsuccessfully on several fronts to stop the project, which is currently awaiting funding on the American end.