A US-based producer of surveillance tools that provides video management systems for monitoring prisons, jails, and the U.S.–Mexico border.
Cemtrex, Inc., headquartered in York, Penn., is an engineering and manufacturing company that specializes in virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence.
Cemtrex subsidiary Vicon Industries manufactures video management software, access control systems, cameras, sensors, and other hardware used for surveillance in large facilities such as prisons. Cemtrex acquired around 46% of Vicon Industries in 2018. In 2019, Vicon became a majority-owned subsidiary when Cemtrex increased its ownership to 72%.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) uses Vicon products for surveilling the U.S.–Mexico border and other ports of entry. From 2008 to 2019, CBP spent more than $200,000 on Vicon video recorders and cameras. Some of this equipment was used by border patrol agents in California, while other units were installed at other ports of entry. In May 2023, Cemtrex received a $1.1 million order through Vicon Industries from “a current large border protection customer in Texas” to develop its security technology system, adding to a previous $1.5 million order from January 2023. The company’s technologies have also been used at CBP immigration jails, including a temporary “soft-sided facility”—ostensibly a large tent—in Eagle Pass, Texas, that can hold up to 1,000 people.
Immigration and Customs enforcement (ICE) has also purchased Vicon equipment and training. Between 2008 and 2018, the agency contracted with Vicon three times, including for security cameras, “machines for surveillance,” and “security camera training.”
Vicon also provides surveillance systems to local, state, and federal prisons and jails. From 2007 to 2018, the Federal Bureau of Prisons purchased just over $4.2 million of security system equipment from Vicon. Vicon’s systems have also been used by prisons and jails in, for example, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington, and the United Kingdom.
Valerus is Vicon’s most advanced video management software. The software works with cameras designed specifically for use in prisons and jails and can be paired with Vax Access Control, a Vicon system that monitors and manages access to doors and protected spaces throughout a facility. The cameras are equipped with speakers and microphones and can be used either for surveillance purposes or to facilitate video hearings between incarcerated people and judges. Some of Vicon’s surveillance cameras are also equipped with infrared sensors made by Teledyne subsidiary FLIR Systems.