Vice News Quotes Bill French on Drones on the Border

US Drone Border Patrol Program a Huge Waste of Money, Homeland Security Report Reveals

By Meredith Hoffman
January 8, 2014 | Vice News

The US may have wasted millions of dollars on drones that have ineffectively patrolled the Mexico border, a scathing Homeland Security report has revealed.

The US Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) drone surveillance program — which allegedly helped law enforcement make only 2 percent of its border arrests in 2013 — follows a distressing pattern of rapid border security investment with little oversight, analysts told VICE News.

The report, released by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of the Inspector General Tuesday, found that CBP spent at least $62.5 million on the program in one year…

But analysts maintain that using drones in border policing is an expensive strategy and that the program’s small gains may not outweigh its hefty price tag.

“Unmanned systems operating on the border provide an additional layer of surveillance, but once a target is identified, additional assets — including conventional reconnaissance assets — are often queued to the area to examine the target,” Bill French, a policy analyst for the National Security Network, told VICE News. “That additional layer of expensive, unmanned reconnaissance may simply not be worth it.”

“Drones, despite their popular appeal, aren’t a cure-all, and require the right operational niche, expertise and operational environment to be effective and worth the cost,” he added.

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