Border Security Games

Unlike the $1.99 Smuggle Truck game rejected by Apple, Sandia is being paid over a million dollars for a border security “game”. This innovative video game technology supposedly will aid decision making for allocation of border security resources. The last high tech approach to border security was a billion dollar flop.

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U.S. Border Patrol is Using Video Games Technology to Help Keep Border Safe

After spending $1 billion on a virtual border fence that it does not plan to complete, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is investing another $1.6 million to test video game technology to help improve its decisions on where to spend its border security funds.

Now, with funding from the DHS, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is exploring ways, through video game simulation, to make sure the same mistakes aren’t made again — and work out questions like how much fence and what kind of fence is needed or how sensors, vehicles and other technical equipment can best be used. The virtual games allow users to track people moving across the border, see how agents respond and control outcomes to apprehend suspects.

Users can also see how many suspects have been apprehended, what resources went into them, as well as the dollar amount spent.

This is all virtual tracking, not real time. Different options can be applied to scenarios much like Sim City.

“It’s a lot more than a video game,” said Mark Borkowksi, the assistant commissioner for Technology Acquisition and Innovation at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

“We were able to put together this tabletop where people could stand around and plan and think through scenarios and think about the issues and requirements and work off each other in a more collaborative way.”

Speaking back in 2007 about the Ground Truth video training tool, Sandia computer scientist and software engineer Donna Djordjevich envisioned integrating the video game into homeland security.

Sandia computer scientists and USC student gamemakers create disaster-training tool

While Ground Truth may one day become a licensable product that comes on DVD, she envisions DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff being won over by a demonstration and demanding that the program be endorsed, paid for, and delivered by DHS to first responders all over the country. “Then maybe we’ll be ready to launch Sandia’s Center for Interactive Gaming Applications,” she says with a laugh

Sandia managed to convince somebody at DHS.





The game cost about ten million dollars to develop. More funding would be needed to add additional features.

Kudos to Sandia for being concerned about people trying to smuggle chemical and nuclear weapons across the border. I suppose that was part of the sales pitch. Is the DHS serious or finding another way to waste time and money while appearing diligent? Will this expensive virtual technology be any more fruitful than the last high-tech boondoggle in stopping uneducated illiterate people from physically running all over the place? I have a feeling the illegals will be laughing right along with Sandia.

It’s worth listening to the technical gobbledygook from Sandia if the video is still here . For some reason Sandia has rendered the video inaccessible on their YouTube channel.