http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20 ... 017098.asp

Criticized border camera system works here
By DAN HERBECK
News Staff Reporter
6/18/2005

In Washington, congressmen are denouncing the U.S. Border Patrol's border camera system as a $239 million fiasco that has failed to improve security at the Mexican and Canadian borders.
But in Buffalo Niagara, federal agents who use the system every day say it has provided a big boost to border surveillance efforts in Youngstown, Lewiston and Niagara Falls.

"We've had a few hiccups, but no major problems," said Ed Duda, deputy chief of patrol for the Border Patrol's Buffalo sector.

Yet plans for an extensive network of security camera towers stretching from Youngstown to Hamburg have been put on hold because of a congressional investigation into the Border Patrol's Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System.

The system, comprising sensors and cameras mounted on tall towers along the Canada and Mexico borders, was supposed to upgrade security along both borders. But the government says mechanical breakdowns and questionable financial practices have left the system in disarray.

"What we have here, plain and simple, is a case of gross mismanagement of a multimillion-dollar contract," Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., chairman of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on management, said at a hearing Thursday. "Worst of all, it's seriously weakened our border security."

Congressmen have been told of bad wiring on some of the cameras and that some of them swivel out of control in hot weather. Numerous questions have also been raised about the financial practices of contractors hired to build the towers.

But according to a local Border Patrol supervisor, the four camera towers in use in Niagara County are doing just fine.

"Each of these cameras allows us to scan an area that would take four or five agents to keep an eye on," Duda said. "It's especially effective at night, when we use the infrared cameras."

The local towers and camera were installed between 2002 and 2004 under the nationwide Border Patrol program. Some Niagara County residents had qualms about the camera installations, saying they made them feel like "Big Brother" was watching their every move.

All the towers are at least 50 feet tall. One is near the public boat launch at Fort Niagara Park in Youngstown. Two more are in Lewiston, in Joseph Davis State Park and near the Lewiston Queenston Bridge. The fourth is near the Whirlpool Bridge in Niagara Falls. Officials said last year that the towers cost about $318,000 each.

The Border Patrol planned to have 14 more towers built this year, extending from Grand Island to Hamburg, but those plans are now on hold because of the investigation in Washington.

A Homeland Security spokesman in Washington, Jarrod Agen, said the Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System is being scrapped, and a new program, called America's Shield, will be designed to take its place.

"As it stands now, we're looking at a new program, building off lessons learned from the ISIS program," Agen said late Friday. "We're excited about rolling out this new strategy."

Will the towers and cameras already paid for by taxpayers be scrapped, or will the government figure a way to integrate them into the new system?

It's too early to determine that, Agen said.

No timetable or cost estimate was given for the new system.


Associated Press contributed to this story.

e-mail: dherbeck@buffnews.com