High- tech border scanners often out of service

OTTAWA — The new high- tech equipment Canadian border officers are increasingly relying on to keep contraband out of the country isn’t particularly reliable, suggest data obtained by Postmedia News.

Furthermore, border guards responsible for operating the machines say the figures don’t even tell the whole story.

Documents obtained by Postmedia News through access- to- information legislation suggest large scanners used to inspect transport trucks and shipping containers at a dozen land and marine crossings across Canada were in use, on average, just 24 days last year. Meanwhile, the machines were broken down for, on average, 37 days.

Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2012, an average of 3,047 inspections were conducted at each of the 12 locations. Of those inspections, test results led Canada Border Services Agency officers to conduct followup inspections an average of 105 times.

The two crossings with the highest number of days the machines were not working — Halifax and Montreal’s Tellier commercial crossing — were also using brand new, $ 2.5- million machines. Heimann Cargo Vision Mobile systems are being phased in to replace an aging fleet of mobile gamma- ray scanners known as Vehicle and Cargo Inspection Systems which, according to a September 2012 memo, also “require a lot of maintenance which is to be expected given that they are three years past their expected replacement dates.”

Additionally, the documents indicate that ion scanner units — which use swabs to detect trace amounts of narcotics and explosives — had about $ 160,000 in repairs between Jan. 1, 2012, and March 31, 2013. A string of emails from February of this year about a troublesome ion scanner in Saskatoon highlights some of the frustrations. In an email, an apparent CBSA employee Jaquie MacLean complains that the scanner broke down for a month last September and again just two weeks after it was returned.

It was broken again at the time she sent the email. She noted the last repair cost $ 8,000 and that the unit was an important tool as Saskatoon had no detector dog or X- ray machine.

While officials in Ottawa agreed to replace it, senior program adviser Balbir Singh cautioned: “Please keep in mind the replacement unit is going to be the same age or older ( than) their current unit” and that “there is no guarantee that the unit is going to be better.”

A border services officer familiar with both the ion scanners as well as the X- ray and gamma- ray machines said the reliability figures appear to be incomplete. While some of the crossings reported zero “broken ticket days” — days the units were out of service — the officer said there were problems with the machines at those locations. But while technical malfunctions and buggy equipment are an issue, the officer noted there are also manpower problems and serious limitations to the machines’ capabilities.

“To operate a contra band detection system such as this for only eight to 10 hours out of a 24- hour period or anything less than a majority of the hours in a week … is worse than useless,” the officer said on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals.

“If I have a multimillion- dollar amount of contraband that I am trying to get across the border, I am going to bring that contraband across the minute this rather visible tool gets stowed for the evening,” the officer said.

When functioning, the large scanners are capable of inspecting numerous vehicles quickly, but they also require four officers to operate and understaffing has made it impossible to run them around the clock or even during peak periods when officers are asked to work overtime just to keep the traffic moving.

While the new Heimann Cargo Vision Mobile machines provide a clearer image than the old units and are good at detecting large quantities of contraband, the officer said they’re useless against smaller quantities such as a few handguns, a pound of cocaine or money hidden in an engine block.

A far more effective tool is a detection dog, he argued, noting a canine unit was recently “invaluable” in uncovering a large amount of amphetamines hidden inside a modified beer can.

“With a canine unit on site, all officers are able to approach their job with more enthusiasm and confidence,” the officer said. “It gets, by far, the most bang for the buck.”

To the dismay of many CBSA officers and the Customs and Immigration Union that represents them, the government slashed 18 detector dog teams as part of the 2012 budget. It also cut about 150 intelligence officers responsible for tipping off border guards to suspect vehicles and travellers.

“There’s no question that our best detection tools have legs and heartbeats and, unfortunately, whether that’s intelligence officers or detection dogs, that’s the area that the government has decided to cut to save money,” said Dan Robinson, a B. C.- based union spokesman.

“Sometimes technology is not as reliable as the officer would like in the field.”

CBSA spokeswoman Amitha Carnadin said detector dogs are good at some things but not others and that no drug dogs were cut at land border crossings. Carnadin added that CBSA officers are ultimately “our best resource at ports of entry.”

Julie Carmichael, a spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney, said that “experts,” not politicians or union bosses, will determine the most effective screening tools to “keep contraband out of Canada.”