Hawk-eyed western Canadians intent on maintaining a peaceful Canada-U.S. border are being encouraged to give the thumbs-up to a new crime-fighting initiative launched by the U.S. Border Patrol.
The agency has rolled out a new system allowing would-be crime stoppers in the B.C. border region to report suspicious activity either by sending an anonymous text message or making a submission through a dedicated website.
The initiative, intended as a way of involving more people in the fight against cross-border crime, has been designed to engage people on both sides of the frontier.
“We absolutely encourage anybody in the border region, whether they’re on the U.S. or Canadian side, to send us tips on suspicious activity,” said agency spokeswoman Danielle Suarez.
Border patrol officials are most interested in stemming the flow of drugs between the two countries, as well as keeping an eye out for possible human trafficking, she added.
The new system relies on encryption to protect the identities of tipsters.
Canadians can alert border agents to suspicious activity by sending a text message to 274637 — it spells “Crimes” on an alphanumeric keypad — and specifying “bordertip” before providing details.
Alternatively, tipsters can provide information by visiting www.tipsubmit.com.
Agents working along the sparsely populated border spanning central Washington, Idaho and western Montana will likely co-ordinate with the RCMP to ensure tips are acted upon quickly, Suarez said.
The border is considered a hotbed of drug-smuggling activity, and Canadians who want to participate in the program should keep one eye on the sky, she added.
“The method that we see in our region ... is a trend of smuggling through the air,” Suarez said. “If somebody in the border region ... sees some type of unusual helicopter activity, let’s say a helicopter with bags strapped to the skids or slung underneath, that would be something we’re looking for with these types of tips.”
But U.S.-based immigrant rights groups fear tipsters may put their observational powers to more sinister uses, saying similar crime-fighting efforts have devolved into exercises in racial and ethnic profiling.
“It can lead to targeting of particular communities,” said Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, a Seattle immigrant rights group. “It creates the sense that somehow we should be suspicious.”
To prevent profiling, the Border Patrol has been running classes in border communities to teach residents what to look for, Suarez said.
Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the plan makes good sense, adding that many police departments are set up to receive text message tips.
“There is no reason this cannot and should not be implemented in the area of border security.”
Canada — and British Columbia in particular — is known to be a source of marijuana for American users, including hundreds of thousands of kilograms a year of lucrative, high-potency pot dubbed “B.C. Bud.”
Canada also has developed rapidly into a leading supplier of ecstasy, often laced with highly addictive methamphetamine, both for U.S. and overseas markets, as crime gangs operate factory-style superlabs.
Last summer, the U.S. Border Patrol said it would deploy hundreds of agents along the U.S.-Canada border, which stretches for 8,851 kilometres. The border was staffed by just 1,550 agents last year, compared with 16,900 personnel deployed along the smaller border between the U.S. and Mexico.