SAN DIEGO — U.S. soldiers, assigned to 716th Military Police Battalion, Task Force Griffin, are supporting the southern border mission through protection the bordering waterways.
Nine Solders are working directly with the Coast Guard in the Joint Harbor Operations Center, or JHOC.
Coast Guard members, harbor police, and now U.S. Soldiers are working together to monitor the waters vulnerable to illicit activity through a robust collection of cameras and sensors overseeing the waterways.
Soldiers are being trained as sensor operators, tracking suspicious vessel movement. Coast Guard Sector San Diego is responsible for coastal waters within 200 miles from the shore of the San Diego County. Because of the far distance, detections often consist of water movement from the wake of a vessel, rather than sighting the vessel itself. When detected, the Soldiers document the report and hand it over to their Coast Guard counterparts.
“The number of maritime reports has remained relatively consistent over the past 36 months. Now, with increased assets assigned to detection we anticipate an increase in the number of reports, but that doesn’t necessarily indicate an increase in activity,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Jason Baldwin, who assigned to the JHOC.
One type of monitoring system providing data to the JHOC are Mobile Surveillance Capability or MSC sites. In addition to the Soldiers assigned to the JHOC, 716th Military Police Battalion operates three maritime MSC sites in San Diego.
The sites are trucks with mounted cameras and radars that allow the crew to monitor a large area. There are hundreds of MSCs along the border, but these are the only current ocean-facing assets manned by Department of Defense personnel.
“When the system detects movement, we are able to observe the disturbance and determine if there is potential for illegal activity,” said Army Spc. Christopher Beckford, one of the soldiers manning the MSCs. “From there, we send the report to CBP for further investigation.”
For ocean-facing MSCs, soldiers were trained by CBP on indicators of a suspicious watercraft, for example, a panga boat with many passengers or a boat repeating routes from south to north. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security reported a recent increase in non-traditional vessels, especially jet skis, engaged in nefarious actions.
As the southern border mission evolves, so will the actions of those seeking to illegally enter the United States. The inter-agency team protecting San Diego is prepared to continue to ensure operational security of the southern border, including the security of the waterways.
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