More cameras for Canada border

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. will expand its use of security cameras on the Canadian border to see whether it can set up an extensive monitoring system similar to what protects the Mexican boundary, the Homeland Security Department announced Tuesday.

The department this summer will position 44 cameras in Detroit along Lake St. Clair, which separates the city from Canada, and 20 cameras in Buffalo along the Niagara River. There are now about 20 cameras along the entire 4,000-mile border between Canada and the continental U.S.

The $20 million program marks the department's first major effort to see whether the northern border, which has large swaths of woods, hills and lakes, can benefit from the extensive camera network along the 1,900-mile U.S.-Mexican border, said Mark Borkowski, head of the department's Secure Border Initiative.

Although the federal government has focused security efforts on the U.S.-Mexican border, Homeland Security says "the terrorist threat on the northern border is higher," according to a November report by Congress' Government Accountability Office (GAO). That's because of the "large expanse of area with limited law-enforcement coverage," the report says.

In 2007, the GAO found that investigators could drive along Canadian roads near the U.S., walk 25 feet to the border and hand a duffel bag to an investigator on the U.S. side. The test aimed to simulate terrorists smuggling in radioactive material.

Northern-state lawmakers such as Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., have said that Homeland Security isn't doing enough to protect the U.S.-Canadian border. Two days after taking office in January, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano launched a review of strategy along the U.S.-Canadian border.

The cameras, mounted on towers and buildings, will be operated remotely by the Border Patrol, Borkowski said.