Center for Investigative Reporting

In their unending battle to deter illegal immigration, drug trafficking and terrorism, U.S. authorities already have beefed up border security with drug-sniffing dogs, aircraft  and thousands more agents manning interior checkpoints.

Now, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has decided it wants more, and the Justice Department agency doesn’t care whether someone has even set foot in Mexico.

Clusters of what at first appear to be surveillance cameras have begun turning up in recent months on the Southwest border, and while some of the machines are merely surveillance cameras, others are specialized recognition devices that automatically capture license-plate numbers and the geographic location of everyone who passes by, plus the date and time.

The DEA confirms that the devices have been deployed in Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico. It has plans to introduce them farther inside the United States. Read more.

Photo: Interstate 19 in Arizona, heading toward the U.S.-Mexico border. Credit: Ken Lund/Flickr

Dozens of high-tech command centers built or beefed up throughout the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to promote better information sharing and disaster preparation have struggled to do just that.

A decade later, federal auditors found that two networks – one heavily focused on law enforcement and the other on emergency management – are often unaware of what the other is doing and in the process might be missing critical opportunities to improve efficiency.

Investigations after the hijackings revealed that critical information about what the attackers were planning had not been pieced together, in part because local, state and federal agencies frequently failed to communicate with one another. Hurricane Katrina, meanwhile, exposed weaknesses in how those same bureaucracies responded to both manmade and natural catastrophes. Read more.

Photo via fpra/Flickr: An emergency operations center in Florida

Capitalizing on one of the fastest-growing trends in law enforcement, a private California-based company has compiled a database bulging with more than 550 million license-plate records on both innocent and criminal drivers that can be searched by police.

The technology has raised alarms among civil libertarians, who say it threatens the privacy of drivers. It’s also evidence that 21st-century technology may be evolving too quickly for the courts and public opinion to keep up. The U.S. Supreme Court is only now addressing whether investigators can secretly attach a GPS monitoring device to cars without a warrant.

A ruling in that case has yet to be handed down, but a telling exchange occurred during oral arguments. Chief Justice John Roberts asked lawyers for the government if even he and other members of the court could feasibly be tracked by GPS without a warrant. Yes, came the answer. 

Meanwhile, police around the country have been affixing high-tech scanners to the exterior of their patrol cars, snapping a picture of every passing license plate and automatically comparing them to databases of outstanding warrants, stolen cars and wanted bank robbers. Read more.

Photo Courtesy of Steve Reed: Security guards at the Arden Fair mall in Sacramento see this visual interface after digitally scanning a license plate.

Congress has called for further investigation of the Homeland Security Department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis following a Center for Investigative Reporting examination that found the outfit has done little to add to or improve the nation’s intelligence data.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last month directed the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm, to examine the department as part of a first-ever Homeland Security authorization bill. 

The committee directed the GAO to look at the department’s reliance on contractors, duplication and gaps in intelligence analysis, and the accuracy and usefulness of analysis reports, all issues raised in CIR’s probe.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said his decision to push for further examination, which aims to “peel back the layers” to find problem areas and identify what needs to be done to enhance the department’s intelligence capabilities, was “spurred” by the CIR report. Read more.