Del Rio, TX—During a staff assistance visit, Operation Border Star Officer In Charge Col. Thomas Hamilton presented two members of the Joint Operations Intelligence Center (JOIC) the Texas Homeland Defense Service Medal.
Chief Master Sergeant Paul Lankford, Operations Manager of the Del Rio JOIC, and Staff Sergeant Jane Stahl, senior mission support specialist, were presented the medals on January 2, 2014 during a Texas State Guard staff assistance visit. The medals were awarded for, “Satisfactory service in defense support to the State of Texas under civilian authority.”
The JOIC, managed by Border Liaison Officer (BLO) Arthur J. Miller, provides border intelligence report products to local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to aid in combating border related crime. Miller, a retired Texas Ranger, said, “We daily receive law enforcement reports from law enforcement agencies in our eight county area of operation (AOR), process them, add them to our data bases, then send out daily, weekly, and monthly intelligence reports.” He said the JOIC gets requests for special project-intelligence-reports, and is able to customize its data-base-stored information into the report format that is most useable for that agency.
Miller said his team works hand-in-hand with the Del Rio Sector Border Intelligence Center (BIC) daily, and each shares information with the other. “In fact, when Border Patrol needs air support, members of the JOIC dispatch the Department of Public Safety (DPS) helicopter to help out. It could be to locate illegal aliens in the brush, lost parties, rescue missions, or other humanitarian efforts.”
Additionally, the JOIC sends out BOLOs, Officer Safety and Awareness Bulletins, Training Bulletins, and Concealment Bulletins.
The Del Rio JOIC’s AOR consists of the following counties: Val Verde, Zavala, Dimmit, Uvalde, Real, Edwards, Maverick, and Kinney. The JOIC is funded by Operation Border Star funds, which also helps provide grant money for enhanced operations in its AOR to combat drug smuggling, alien smuggling, weapon and ammunition smuggling, and cash smuggling.