{
  "record": {
    "id": "3f8a9474-5013-4332-977d-8ef559d4ac2c",
    "code": "PAI-3F8A9474",
    "force": "US Customs and Border Protection",
    "country": "United States",
    "country_code": "us",
    "is_country": true,
    "region": "Border Patrol sectors on the southwest and northern borders",
    "technology": "Autonomous Surveillance Towers",
    "technology_slug": "ai-video-analytics",
    "vendor": "Anduril Industries",
    "vendor_slug": "",
    "programme": "",
    "status": "operational",
    "stage": "in-use",
    "evidence": "official",
    "evidence_is_claim": false,
    "since": "2018",
    "legal_basis": "",
    "oversight": "Listed in the DHS 2025 AI Use Case Inventory (DHS-35), where DHS classes it as presumed high-impact but determined not high-impact",
    "notes": "The DHS 2025 AI Use Case Inventory (entry DHS-35, as consolidated by the Office of Management and Budget) lists CBP's Autonomous Surveillance Tower as deployed, purchased from Anduril, with an operational date of January 2020. It describes a \"machine learning assisted system\" whose computer vision alerts agents when it detects people, vehicles or animals in the image frame; a trained agent then reviews the image and classifies the activity. DHS says the system is not biometric and \"does not identify or track specific individuals\", and on that basis classes it as not high-impact. CBP's release of 2 July 2020 says the towers became a programme of record for the Border Patrol; they scan with radar, point a camera at detected movement and use \"algorithms to autonomously identify items of interest\", with agents making the final determination. The release says CBP first piloted four towers in the San Diego sector in early 2018, then procured 56 more, and planned a total of 200. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (20 July 2026), citing a new GAO report, says the wider Integrated Surveillance Tower programme is to grow from 830 towers to 2,300 by 2034, with about $1 billion from the 2025 budget law for long-range autonomous towers and for adding autonomous capabilities to existing towers; these figures are EFF's account of the GAO report.",
    "source": "Office of Management and Budget, 2025 federal AI use case inventory (DHS-35)",
    "source_url": "https://github.com/ombegov/2025-Federal-Agency-AI-Use-Case-Inventory",
    "last_checked": "2026-11-06",
    "record_url": "https://www.policeainews.com/tracker/record/3f8a9474-5013-4332-977d-8ef559d4ac2c"
  },
  "licence": "https://www.policeainews.com/data#licence"
}