From handheld x-ray machines to drive-thru scanners: How the CBSA is guarding the border with new tech
Posted May 13, 2025 6:04 am.
Last Updated May 13, 2025 5:10 pm.
Most guns used in crimes are coming from the U.S., illegally sourced and smuggled over the border, primarily via land. Recent statistics from Toronto Police Services and Peel Regional Police show that around 90 per cent of guns seized have been traced back to the U.S.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Ontario Provincial Police and the Alberta Sheriffs are all regularly patrolling parts of the largely undefended 8,891 kilometre border between Canada and the U.S., but at points of entry, crossings via land, rail and air, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) have stepped up their efforts with increased cooperation with other law enforcement agencies, better intelligence and more technology, predominantly in the form of x-rays.
In a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse at how the CBSA secures the Canadian border, Border Services Officer Bryan Murray demonstrated to CityNews how the BackScatter X-ray, a small handheld device not much bigger than a game controller, works.
He hides a package of simulated narcotics inside a removed door panel, a trick commonly used by gun smugglers and seals it. He expertly waves the device over the outside of the door, quickly revealing images of the package in his hand.
“I can take an image along the door, and you can see the normal composition or density, and then that’s where we’ve simulated some type of narcotics,” he said, pointing to a clear white image. “It’s a real time-saver, we use this over luggage and bags coming out of buses,” Murray explained. More parcels, packages, and car components are getting checked, and more efficiently.
This type of technology has helped the CBSA seize about 10,000 kilograms of crack cocaine and about 4,000 firearms since 2021.
Some are hidden in natural voids of vehicles, some in much more complex contraptions like centre consoles that reveal hidden compartments, bad door panels that pop out to reveal an ideal hiding sport for several guns or big quantities of drugs, hollowed out passenger seats, spare tires and secret trunk compartments that can easily house contraband.
“We do have great powers of search at the border. We can search without warrants,” said Border Services Officer Scott English. “Once we find indicators that tell us that maybe an area in the car is being used to smuggle, potentially, then that’s when we want to open them up and have a look.”
Last year, 5.3 million commercial trucks crossed the border, and thorough searches of even one of these vehicles can take hours or most of a day.
Technically, CBSA has the authority to take apart a vehicle bolt by bolt. But the use of HCV mobile, a massive, mobile x-ray machine, means hundreds of trucks that would have simply crossed through without secondary inspection, or been tied up at the border for hours on end, can be searched in just minutes.
“There’s a large arm that extends down from it when it’s deployed, and with that we can drive over top of containers, transport trucks, whatever else we choose to, and it provides a very detailed image of what’s inside,” Chris Patterson said. Think of it as a drive-thru x-ray machine- that can take detailed images of the cargo inside a trailer but also images of what’s inside the bins, crates and barrels.
“The operator inside can see on the screen what is metal, what is organic, what is plastic. It actually can show those different metals. It also shows different densities, so if we have something that might be contraband, a small shipment of contraband inside a large, bulky shipment, we can usually pick that out as well,” Patterson said.
“We can do about twelve of these in an hour, and by the time the operator reads it, usually it comes and goes in about five minutes.”
These types of tools are also commonly used at ports and railways and have helped law enforcement stop 260 stolen vehicles from leaving Canada to date, and about 10,000 since 2018.
Still, all this technology is only useful if there are officers there to deploy it and conduct the intensive searches required for security and prosecution of offenders.
The union representing CBSA officers has been calling for increased staff for years, saying the agency is about 2,000 employees short of being able to do its job at peak performance levels.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Carney reiterated that the government will be hiring 1,000 more staff for the agency—when attrition is factored in, that’s about a quarter of the staff the customs and immigration union claims is needed.
