By the end of the 1990s, the agency had transformed from an under-funded, understaffed operation with inadequate resources, to an agency with over 2,000 agents, equipped with new information technology systems and geospatial tools. The modernization of the U.S. Border Patrol necessitated initiatives bringing together the potent mix of geographic imaging, geospatial information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS), infrared aerial photography, and sophisticated sensors for recording activity along the border.