Border Integrity Capability: Enhancements of Multi-jurisdictional Situation Awareness on Lake Ontario during the G20

摘要

While improvements have been made on Border Integrity Capabilities over time, significant gaps remain, particularly along the Great Lakes and St Lawrence Seaway. This study reports that, for the first time in Canada, law enforcement authorities on the Great Lakes and St-Lawrence Seaway were able to demonstrate the capability of wide-area surveillance and maritime domain awareness through the use of networked radar technology. While a recent study (PSTP-08-103BTS) demonstrated the technology's ability to detect and track small vessels and low-flying aircraft, the G20 Summit in Toronto, a major complex national event, offered the opportunity to extend the above study and test the contribution of the technology to border integrity under multi- jurisdictional operational conditions. This major event included a large number of users and stakeholders (RCMP, Great Lakes Marine Security Operations Centre, Toronto Police Services, and Department of National Defence) and provided a unique opportunity to test the value of the system in an international operational setting. While it was not possible to collect quantitative data during G20 Summit, it was agreed that qualitative data would be collected as part of the study. The results indicated that the networked radar technology increased the operational effectiveness as well as cost-effectiveness of the marine security efforts. Because the technology enabled: 1) maritime domain awareness 2) common operating picture ('common language' in multi agency operations) and 3) seamless web-enabled sharing of radar tracks overlayed on Google Earth(TM), users reported the ability to interdict vessels during the G20 Summit that may otherwise not have been. The technology was successful in detecting and tracking vessels of interest with respect to International cross border activity. Due to their continued engagement in the technology, users have suggested a number of improvements, which are documented in this report.