Virtual network 'SABRE' helps protect the southern U.S. border

Progress toward expanding the wall at our southern border with Mexico is being made after two years of delays by court challenges.

But on my most recent reporting trip to the border, I found a fascinating new initiative making a difference in Cochise County, Arizona— a place long overridden by illegal drugs and illegal immigrants entering from Mexico.

This initiative is remarkable for several reasons. First, it’s inexpensive. Second, it’s proven extremely effective. And it’s all been done without a wall, high tech, or much manpower.

What is this initiative? It’s called SABRE, which stands for “Southeastern Arizona Border Region Enforcement.” It was started up by Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels.

In short, SABRE is a virtual network of about 500 motion-detecting “Buckeye” or game cameras carefully placed to monitor hot zones where illegal border crossings are common but where there are gaps in federal government surveillance.

Sheriff Dannels explained to me that Mexican drug cartels learned to evade Border Patrol cameras, which monitor surface areas, by traveling in gullies and ditches. The new system plugs some critical holes.

It takes just a handful of agents to monitor the game cameras by mobile phone. When an alert comes in, the agents coordinate a response to catch the interlopers. How effective has it been? Local ranchers who had become accustomed to daily incursions on their property say things are the best they’ve been in three decades.

Local rancher John Ladd says twenty cameras on his property has made all the difference in the world. Before the surveillance, “we had three or four loads a week of marijuana coming through. Truck-fulls, backpackers, you name it,” Ladd tells me.

Since the SABRE cameras have been implemented?

“We haven't had drugs on the ranch for 18 months,” Ladd says. “They shut down a 15-mile corridor of drugs in about six months.”