U.S. Bullsh*t Patrol
by Glenn Spencer -- February 25, 2010

Last October KVOA did a report on American Border Patrol's use of trail cameras to count people crossing the border. The Border Patrol's response was "We apprehend what we can see. I cannot count something that I do not see."

This was silly because the U.S. Border Patrol counts people all the time using underground seismic sensors.

This week KVOA asked the Border Patrol to respond to American Border Patrol's low-cost methods of border surveillance. This was their answer:

"Funds to monitor border activity are determined by congressionally directed budgets. Chief Agents prioritize border surveillance with cost effective measures monitored by the U.S. Government Accountability Office."

I find this amusing. Congress provides funding for the U.S. Border Patrol, but its own management is responsible for determining how well things work. The GAO doesn't have the resources to do that.

In a September 9, 2009 report, the Government Accountability Office said the following:

Recommendation: To improve the quality of information available to allocate resources and determine tactical infrastructure's contribution to effective control of the border, .

The GAO has been after the Border Patrol to do cost-effective analysis for years and they haven't taken steps to do it, until very recently.

A person with a major defense contractor told me that the MITRE Corporation was recently awarded a contract to do a cost-effective study of border systems. He said MITRE's first reaction to the situation was that Customs and Border Patrol had the numerator, but not the denominator. In others words, they knew what the costs of fencing and electronic systems were, but the didn't know how well they worked. That was the major reason that the SBInet virtual system failed.

Knowing what I know about how the U.S Border Patrol goes about its business, despite MITRE, I doubt that anything will change soon. Just as I called SBI the Strategic Bullsh*t Initiative, I am now thinking of referring to the U.S Border Patrol as the U.S Bullsh*t Patrol. U.S. Bullshit Patrol