Sheriff wants expansion of cameras near border

By Jeff McDonald, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 12:02 a.m.

A network of government surveillance cameras dots the San Diego County coastline, where smugglers are increasingly turning to small boats and even surfboards to sneak migrant workers and illegal drugs into the country.

The surveillance system has been quietly run by a coalition of federal and local agencies. Now Sheriff William Gore wants the county to expand the network by negotiating a no-bid contract with FLIR Systems Inc., a private security company that supplies the cameras for the intergovernmental operation. The cameras have a 10-mile range.

News of the surveillance network worried officials from two San Diego advocacy groups, who fear that the Sheriff’s Department will step up its enforcement of federal immigration laws and erode the privacy rights of law-abiding citizens.

“By having the sheriff use the camera system, they are engaging in border enforcement, which is beyond their jurisdiction as a law enforcement agency,â€