- Cooperate on National Security and Transnational Criminal Investigations
- Provide Interoperable Radio Capability for Law Enforcement
Cooperate on National Security and Transnational Criminal Investigations
From the Action Plan
“Canada and the United States will develop integrated cross-border law enforcement operations, including deploying regularized Shiprider teams. In addition, we will implement “Next Generation” pilot projects to create integrated teams in areas such as intelligence and criminal investigations, and an intelligence-led uniformed presence between ports of entry. This model draws on the proven cross-border policing approaches that were introduced by Shiprider, while incorporating the best practices and successes of other existing border law enforcement programs such as the Integrated Border Enforcement Teams and the Border Enforcement Security Task Force.”
What we are doing
- Canada and the U.S. will regularize the Shiprider program.
- Canada will pursue the ratification of the Shiprider Framework Agreement by winter 2011-12 to enable deployment of regularized Shiprider operations by summer 2012.
- Assuming successful ratification, Canada and the U.S. will deploy two Shiprider teams by the summer of 2012 and an additional two teams by 2015-16.
- By summer 2012, our countries will establish a “Next Generation” pilot project that creates integrated teams on land. Two pilot teams will be deployed by the summer of 2012.
Why this is important
Canada and the United States share a land border close to 9,000 kilometres (over 5,500 miles) in length. It is challenging for our law enforcement and security agencies to deal with the array of challenges across this vast geography. Shiprider has been a highly successful pilot that employs cross-designated officers to patrol high-risk maritime areas between Canada and the United States. It makes sense to regularize it and roll out new teams in high-risk areas along the border. Furthermore, it makes sense to apply the same basic model to land areas between border crossings. The law enforcement and security challenges are largely them same. Our countries are therefore developing the “Next Generation” pilot projects.
Provide Interoperable Radio Capability for Law Enforcement
From the Action Plan
“We will implement a binational radio interoperability system between Canadian and U.S. border enforcement personnel to permit law enforcement agencies to coordinate effective binational investigations and timely responses to border incidents, while improving both officer and public safety.”
What we are doing
- Canada and the U.S. will fully implement a binational radio interoperability system within three years.
Why this is important
Law enforcement officers in border regions currently have to carry a number of different radios just to be able to communicate with all of the police, first responders, and border officials with whom they may need to interact. This fragmented communications situation makes it harder for law enforcement agencies to coordinate timely responses to border incidents and to effectively coordinate binational investigations. It is important for law enforcement to be able to communicate, cross-border, as events unfold in real time. This will improve both officer and public safety. It will operate in a manner fully consistent with our national laws. The Action Plan does not opine on spectrum issues and will not impact forthcoming decisions with respect to blocks within the 700MHz band.