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.

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