Thread: Texas border cameras could be ready by January

Texas border cameras could be ready by January
By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
Article Launched: 11/17/2007 06:20:37 PM MST


AUSTIN - More than a year and a half after Gov. Rick Perry promised to put hundreds of cameras on the border and broadcast live footage of illegal border crossers on the Web, the project is about to become reality.
Perry has found $3 million to restart his virtual border watch program, and the cameras could be up and running by January, a spokeswoman said. Though, she added, it might take longer to make the footage available online.

"We're going to put these cameras in strategic high-traffic areas along the border," spokeswoman Allison Castle said.

During his re-election campaign in 2006, Perry promised to put hundreds of cameras on the Texas-Mexico border and broadcast the video over the Web so that anyone, anywhere could become a border patroller, helping root out border crime and illegal crossings.

It took more than three months for Perry's emergency management office to get a test run of the program going. That lasted for about a month, last year. Though the site got millions of hits and Internet viewers watched thousands of hours of video from about a dozen sites along the border, the cameras led authorities to 10 undocumented immigrants, one drug deal and one human smuggling route.

The test-run cost about $200,000.

Despite the low number of apprehensions, Perry labeled the cameras a success because of interest generated from around the globe.

But lawmakers this year rejected Perry's request for $5 million to restart the program and add more cameras on the border.
Legislators set aside $110 million for border security efforts, hoping to target violent crime and drug and human smuggling.

"Lawmakers felt unanimous that immigration is a federal issue," said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso. "Why burden local and state taxpayers with a federal obligation?"

So Perry had to find money elsewhere for the cameras. Castle said the $3 million will come from federal grants and will pay for about 200 mobile cameras.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_7492301

Nov. 18, 2007, 2:30PM
Perry finds $3 million for border cameras


© 2007 The Associated Press

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EL PASO, Texas — Gov. Rick Perry's proposal to broadcast live video footage from the border over the Internet should be up and running again by January now that new funding has been secured, a spokeswoman said.

Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said the governor has found $3 million in federal grants to install about 200 mobile cameras along the Texas-Mexico border.

The cameras were pitched during Perry's 2006 re-election campaign as a way for anyone via the Internet to become a border patroller and help root out border crime and illegal crossings.

A $200,000 test run that lasted about a month last year led authorities to 10 undocumented immigrants, one drug deal and one human smuggling route.

But earlier this year, lawmakers rejected Perry's request for $5 million to restart the program and add more cameras.

"Lawmakers felt unanimous that immigration is a federal issue," said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso. "Why burden local and state taxpayers with a federal obligation?"

Castle, the Perry spokeswoman, said the new cameras will be installed in "strategic high-traffic areas along the border." The system should be running by January, though it may be longer before to footage is available online, she added.

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Information from: El Paso Times, http://www.elpasotimes.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5311845.html

Texas Gov. Rick Perry Revives Controversial Border WebCam Program
Monday , November 19, 2007


WASHINGTON —

A popular, but controversial Web site set up so anyone with Internet access can help keep watch over the porous U.S. southern border is scheduled to be back up and running early next year.

The site run by the State of Texas, www.Texasborderwatch.com — which is now dark — is getting a $3 million no-strings-attached cash infusion that will be used to pay for the citizen-watch program, Gov. Rick Perry's office said Monday.

The site drew 28 million hits in a one-month test run last November, averaging about 43,000 hits per hour, according to information posted on the program Web site and confirmed by Perry's office. The popularity crashed the computer servers and flooded law enforcement officials with tipster information.

But the program's effectiveness remains to be seen. During the test-run, the program generated about 13,000 e-mails to law-enforcement, leading only to the arrest of 10 illegal immigrants.

Despite the mixed results, Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle told FOX News Texas is moving forward with the program, which includes about 200 "strategically" placed cameras along the border. The state will also be seeking bidders in the coming weeks to run the system, which will also include a server system that would be able to handle higher traffic than the one tested in November 2006.

From the test-run last year, Castle said, "We were able to determine that using these cameras is effective. ... It disrupts the criminal activity."

Castle said more details will be available once the state puts its official bid request out selects a company to work with, but she said the cameras will go on private property in high-traffic areas, and they will be mobile so law enforcement can change their locations as needed.

She also said that the cameras will not be identified by location, so if someone is viewing it on their home or office monitor, they won't know precisely where they're looking. That is a safeguard to keep criminals from using the program as their own intelligence.

The governor's office expects a majority of cameras to be available for public viewing, according to Castle.

"The goal of this program is deterring and disrupting criminal activity," she said.

While the program might help in stemming illegal immigration, it may not be as cost-effective as other approaches, said Steve Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, an immigration law enforcement advocacy think-tank.

"This kind of system can be helpful. It highlights the problem and does some good, but obviously, it's not a substitute for fencing and patrolling," Camarota said. "It's important mainly because it reminds Washington this (immigration problem) isn't going away."

But the camera-watch camera program might create more problems than it solves, said Luis Figueroa, an attorney and spokesman for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

"It's not an effective way of doing enforcement," Figueroa said.

He said Border Patrol offices were flooded with nuisance calls last year, and there's a strong likelihood that people not familiar with the border social or geographic terrain watching the Web cameras — from anywhere in the world— will call in more false alarms.

"A private individual in Austin, watching a Web cam 300 miles away, isn't going to have any idea what's going on," Figueroa said. He noted that the initial program also had problems with camera definition, where viewers could not clearly see what cameras were capturing.

Figueroa said that rather than this type of program, the best solutions are found in the now-stalled comprehensive immigration reform proposals that were halted due to Republican opposition in Congress during successive attempts in 2006 and 2007. The plan sought to give some illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship — which was criticized by opponents as amnesty — while beefing up enforcement along the border and for employers who hire illegal immigrants.

"First and foremost, it (immigration) is a federal responsibility. ... When you have a state that isn't familiar with immigration enforcement, doesn't have the training ... or even the authority to enforce immigration laws, that's where the problems are," Figueroa said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312230,00.html

The cameras might be ready but they won't do any good as long as we have leaders willing to ignore them.

Governor's cameras
Border 'eyes' can save money
El Paso Times Staff
Article Launched: 11/22/2007 12:00:00 AM MST


Here's hoping Gov. Rick Perry's border cameras prove to be a successful alternative to building nearly as much fencing along our southern border. It could be a savings of billions of dollars.
Perry's experiment is to broadcast live video footage from the border over the Internet. Persons signed on to the site could then alert the Border Patrol of suspicious activities -- be the eyes.

Last year's test run, using $200,000 worth of technology for about a month, led authorities to 10 undocumented immigrants, one drug deal and one human smuggling route. It was a so-so result, but there were only a few cameras in operation.

And later lawmakers rejected Perry's request for $5 million to restart the program on an expanded basis -- a lot more cameras.

"Lawmakers felt unanimous that immigration is a federal issue," said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso. "Why burden local and state taxpayers with a federal obligation?"

Good point. And we generally feel that way, too. But we'd like to see what can be accomplished with a lot more cameras.

The plan is now back on. Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said the governor has found $3 million in federal grants. That's enough to install 200 mobile cameras.

We agree that securing the border should be a federal government job. But Perry has a point when he says it's his duty to protect Texans from the criminal element until the federal government does its duty.

However, it would be wrong and financially irresponsible for the federal government to go along with the Senate's plan to build 700 miles of physical fencing at certain points along our 1,969-mile border with Mexico. The cost for that is estimated to be as high as $49 billion.
We favor using technology, a la Perry's plan, and we favor more Border Patrol agents. That combination, if the technology proves successful, is a much better way to secure our border.

Some fencing, of course, is logical and is needed. There is fencing between El Paso and Juárez now. It's been in place for years, and the Border Patrol has agents stationed every 500 yards. There has been little outcry against the fence.

But fencing in rural areas, and desert areas between Brownsville, Texas, and San Diego does not make much sense.

If Perry's initiative proves successful, it will show that technology is not only successful, but is much cheaper than actually building the proposed physical barrier along so many of those sparsely populated areas along the border.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_7528451

Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said the governor has found $3 million in federal grants to install about 200 mobile cameras along the Texas-Mexico border.

We agree that securing the border should be a federal government job. But Perry has a point when he says it's his duty to protect Texans from the criminal element until the federal government does its duty.

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Perry is a real stand up American. (NOT) While he is spending 10 million on the governors mansion we can't find any more than that for border security? He is collaborating with spain to steal our land and build the mexican highway, the illegals just poor into Texas. Texas is headed in the same direction as California, and he does nothing to stop it. Now with other states enforcing the law, they are really coming here. He sides with any complaint from Mexico, is against the fence, and needs to be behind a fence himself. I bet the unit at Hutto would hold him behind a fence he says will not work... He knows nothing is going to be done at the federal level about immigration and Texas is going to have to step up and do it ourselves quickly or we will no longer have a state.