Thread: Texas border sheriffs launch border camera program {UPDATE}

Here is the link if you want to watch the border live

http://www.blueservo.net/?gclid=CJ32_9O ... agod_hGKSA

Thanks jimpasz!

I just saw some action and reported it

Border cameras net 2 million hits, 1 drug bust, 6 illegal entries
By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
Article Launched: 12/17/2008 01:34:31 AM MST


AUSTIN - Nearly 2 million Web hits and a thousand e-mails from watchers of Texas' latest border camera project resulted in one drug bust and reports of about a half-dozen illegal border crossings in the past month, officials said Tuesday.
"We still feel very strongly that the program is righteous, that it's doing the right thing and that as it grows it will make our communities even safer," said Donald Reay, executive director of the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition.

The coalition, along with the private online social networking company BlueServo, obtained a $2 million grant from Gov. Rick Perry to operate the border camera program. Perry promised in 2006 to line the Texas-Mexico border with cameras and broadcast the footage online, and he has been struggling since then to get the program off the ground.

Results from the first month of the latest border camera effort are paltrier than those from a test-run of the technology that Perry launched in November 2006, and critics say the numbers show that the surveillance program is a waste of taxpayer dollars.

"The camera program is designed around politics, not safety," said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso.

The Web site, www.blueservo.com, was launched last month and had gotten about 1.89 million hits by Tuesday, said Reay, of the Sheriff's Coalition.

The hits, he said, generated about 1,500 e-mails that led to one drug bust netting three arrests and about 540 pounds of marijuana in South Texas Reports from virtual deputies, he said, also led to the referral of about six undocumented immigrants to U.S. Border Patrol officials.

After promising to spend $5 million to put hundreds of cameras on the border, Perry paid BlueServo associates who were operating with a different company at the time $200,000 to test about a dozen cameras two years ago.

The test site generated millions of hits and more than 14,800 e-mails. An El Paso Times analysis of reports obtained through open-records requests revealed that all that Web traffic resulted in 10 immigrant apprehensions, one drug bust and the interruption of one smuggling route.

Katherine Cesinger, a Perry spokeswoman, said the goal of the border watch program is to deter criminals with the threat of many thousands of eyes peering at them online.

"The measurement of first success is not necessarily how many people are apprehended or the numbers so much as that goal of deterrence," she said.

Philip Midkiff, president of BlueServo, said people from all over the U.S. and from other countries, including Mexico and France, have logged on to watch the border footage.

"I'm impressed with the public level of concern about their community," Midkiff said.

The Sheriff's Coalition has agreed to pay BlueServo at least $625,000 to operate the camera program, and under the contract with the Sheriff's Coalition, Midkiff stands to make much more.

Using the border watch program as a launching pad, Midkiff plans to create a social networking site that will allow users to hook up their own cameras and let friends in the network watch the footage.

Once he has more volume, Midkiff said, he plans to start selling advertisements on the Web site.

Already, he said, a camera operator in South Texas has inquired about adding his 10 cameras to the program, and a neighborhood watch group has asked, too.

Potential advertisers are also calling, he said.

"I'm happy we're on the way," Midkiff said.

Under the contract with the Sheriff's Coalition, Midkiff will keep profits generated after the advertising pays for the cost of operating the border cameras.

Midkiff said his primary motive is to make the border community safer, and he's testing a ground radar detection system that would act as a sensor to aim the cameras in the direction of movement on the border. The sheriffs, though, have not agreed to add that to the program, he said.

"The crime, the terrorism does interest me on a family level," he said.

Luis Figueroa, legislative attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said taxpayer dollars would be better spent on prevention programs and law enforcement technology that have been proved to reduce crime.

"The first one (border camera test) I think by all measured reports was a failure, and we think the second round won't be much better," Figueroa said.

Shapleigh said the cameras were a political move by Perry, who is facing a 2010 challenge from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, to woo conservative Republicans who want Texas to do more to fight illegal immigration.

"I hope that the governor will use his influence as a border state executive to push for comprehensive immigration reform, real safety measures on the border and needed infrastructure," Shapleigh said, "instead of pandering prior to an election campaign."

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_11251446

Border cameras worth the cost?
Internet site nets one big drug bust, but advocates say payoff is deterrence
By SUSAN CARROLL
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Dec. 24, 2008, 11:11PM

More than a month after the launch of a state-funded Web site that allows people to monitor footage from surveillance cameras along the Texas border, the effort has netted one drug bust of more than 500 pounds of marijuana, officials said.

Since the Internet site went live Nov. 19, more than 21,000 people have signed up as "virtual deputies" and Web traffic has topped more than 5 million hits, according to BlueServo, the company that runs the site.

The program allows "virtual deputies" to monitor activity on 13 cameras in South Texas and report suspicious activity through www.BlueServo.net, which automatically notifies local sheriff's departments via e-mail of the reports, said Donald Reay, executive director of the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition.

The surveillance program, funded with a $2 million grant from Gov. Rick Perry's office, scored its first and only drug seizure Nov. 28 with the discovery of 540 pounds of marijuana and the arrest of a suspected drug smuggler, Reay said. He declined to disclose the location of the bust or the agency involved, saying that would provide too much information about the camera's location.

Reay said the program is designed to focus primarily on border crime, not illegal immigration. The system does not directly notify U.S. Border Patrol of illegal activity, although deputies with the local sheriff's departments may call them if they choose, Reay said. The program does not track the number of referrals involving suspected illegal immigrants.

Reay also cautioned against just focusing on the number of seizures as a measure of success, saying the program is designed to have a deterrent effect.

"When people think there are cameras out there, they hesitate before they act," Reay said. "That means our communities are safer on our side of the border. To me that's a win-win."

But with its $2 million price tag, some critics have questioned whether taxpayers are getting results for their money.

El Paso Mayor John Cook said the program, so far, is "not a very good return on the investment."

"I really don't know of that many people who are going to spend their time monitoring a camera on the border as a pastime," Cook said. "Most people have something better to do."

The public response to the program so far has been "extraordinary," said Joe Milam, a spokesman for BlueServo, which runs the Web site and retains the rights to any advertising proceeds from the site.

"Virtual deputies are signing up from all over the United States," Milam said, citing a list that includes states from California to Florida to Ohio.

Most of the deputies, some 55 percent, live in Texas, according to survey information provided by the company. Houston ranks third-highest for the number of volunteers in Texas, after El Paso and Mission, the company reported.

Milam said the biggest measure of success is the satisfaction of the local sheriff's departments.

"It's going well enough that the sheriff's are smiling, which is a good thing," Milam said.

The Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition, which includes 20 sheriffs along the border, partnered with BlueServo to get the virtual border watch effort up and running.

Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West said Tuesday that his department is participating in the program, and will soon have a camera up and running in a known drug-trafficking area.

Allison Castle, a spokeswoman for Perry's office, said Tuesday that the governor is pleased with the new program so far.

She said it's designed to deter crime, much like a surveillance camera in a bank lobby, or a police car parked on the side of the road.

"If you try to measure its success on the number of people that are caught or pounds of marijuana seized, you kind of miss the point," she said. "We want to keep people from committing crime in the first place."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6181294.html

Virtual border surveillance program ineffective, cost millions
By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
Posted: 01/26/2009 12:00:00 AM MST




AUSTIN -- A virtual border surveillance program Gov. Rick Perry has committed millions of taxpayer dollars to fell far short of expectations during the first six months of operation.
Border sheriffs, who Perry gave $2 million to line the Texas-Mexico border with hundreds of Web cameras, installed only about a dozen and made just a handful of apprehensions as a result of tips from online viewers.

Reports obtained by the El Paso Times under the Texas Public Information Act show that the cameras produced a fraction of the objectives Perry outlined.

Perry's office acknowledged the reported results were a far from the expectations but said the problem was with the yardstick used to measure the outcome and not with the camera program.




"The progress reports need to be adjusted to come in line with the strategy," said Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger.
Perry and the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition defended the Web cameras and argued it's too soon to judge their effectiveness.

"We realize some people will criticize us; it doesn't matter what we do," said Don Reay, executive director of the sheriffs coalition.

But critics say the numbers prove the camera project is a failure that is more about shoring up Perry's conservative base than about keeping border communities safe.

"I think it's a waste of time and it's a waste of money," said state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen. "It doesn't work."

Perry awarded the Border Sheriffs Coalition $2 million in federal grant


money last summer to get the Web camera program going after his own repeated attempts proved fruitless.
In the first six months of the grant period, the coalition spent $625,000 to get the cameras running.

The Web site went public Nov. 19, and in the first month saw nearly 2 million hits.

All those hits didn't translate into much law enforcement work, though, according to a six-month progress report required for the grant.

The report describes both the objectives for the program during the first year of the grant and how much progress was made in achieving those goals.

The coalition's goal was to make 1,200 arrests as a result of tips from the online cameras in the first year of the project.

They made three arrests in the first six months, according to the progress report.

Of some 4,500 suspected immigration violations they expected to report to U.S. Border Patrol in the year, the first six months produced six.

The report also showed the group installed just 13 of 200 cameras it planned to install this year.

Initially contacted about the report, Perry spokeswoman Cesinger expressed surprise at the discrepancy between the programs' objectives and achievements.

After consulting with other Perry staff, she thanked the El Paso Times for bringing the discrepancies in the report to their attention.

The objectives, which Perry's staff originally set, she said, were flawed.

The point of the cameras, Cesinger said, is not to help police and Border Patrol make arrests or apprehensions but to deter criminals from breaking the law in the first place.

But Cesinger admitted that how much crime the cameras deter is a factor that cannot be measured.

"I'm not sure what they're adjusting (the objectives) to, but this is definitely something we're thankful you brought to our attention," she said.

Asked how taxpayers could judge whether the cameras were worth the $2 million Perry is spending, Cesinger said only that taxpayers would "get" the concept of deterrence.

"They're smart and they understand," she said.

Border sheriffs coalition executive director Reay also said the camera program would be dramatically scaled back from its initial conception as a virtual border wall of cameras along the border.

The plan originally called for 200 cameras, the equivalent of one camera for every six miles of the Texas-Mexico border.

Now, Reay said, they will likely install about 15 cameras for public viewing, the equivalent of one camera every 80 miles.

Reay acknowledged numbers in the report don't look good, but he said two things account for the discrepancy between the objectives for the camera program and the actual results.

First, he agreed with Perry's staff that the goals were probably off.

"We think they might have been a little bit high as we're evaluating," Reay said.

Second, the Web site launch was delayed until the last month of the reporting period. There were holdups in getting the funds, installing the technology and getting permission to put up the cameras, Reay said.

"It's not something where you can say, 'I have the money today. I can go install cameras tomorrow,'" he explained.

Given more time and more viewers, Reay said, he expected the results to grow, though probably not to the levels described in the original objectives.

Not 1st camera rodeo

The camera project is one Perry has been struggling to get off the ground since he announced in June 2006 he would spend $5 million to line the Texas border with hundreds of cameras and stream the video feed live on the Web. Anyone, anywhere with an Internet connection could troll the border for scofflaws, he promised.

"By leveraging advanced video technology and the power of the World Wide Web, and with an increased financial commitment from the state of Texas, we can make our border stronger and our nation safer," Perry said just before the 2006 state Republican Party convention as a national debate over illegal immigration raged.

After several starts and stops, Perry launched a $200,000 monthlong test with 21 cameras in November 2006.

An El Paso Times review of documents from the test showed despite 28 million hits on the test Web site, the cameras helped border law enforcement apprehend only 10 undocumented immigrants, make one drug bust and interrupt one smuggling route.

Some lawmakers panned the program as ineffective, and in 2007 legislators denied Perry's request to fund more cameras and resume the online offensive.

Last year, though, Perry secured $2 million in federal grant money to get the cameras online.

But when his office sought a vendor, none would do the job for that price.

So Perry turned to the border sheriffs, a group he had previously given tens of millions for border security operations.

The sheriffs contracted with a social-networking company called Blueservo to set up the cameras and the Web site.

Once enough users sign up, the company says it plans to sell advertising on the site to generate a profit and pay for the border camera effort.

Cesinger said Perry is committed to the camera program because it uses technology to help secure the border, a mission the federal government has failed to accomplish.

"It's utilizing technology so you don't have to pay for an extra set of eyes," she said.

A dangerous waste

Civil rights advocates and state lawmakers were appalled at the paltry results the cameras produced for the $2 million investment.

"I don't see the virtue of spending $2 million on this program that's supposed to arrest criminals along the border," said state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio. "That's not a good return on our investment."

Lawmakers said Perry should spend the money to address more serious problems, like stopping gunrunners who supply Mexican cartels with U.S.-made weapons they use to slaughter thousands in the ongoing drug war.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, called the cameras another in a string of thinly veiled attacks Perry has launched on immigrants and Hispanics to satisfy conservative Republican voters.

"Virtual immigrant hunts will earn Perry backlash at the polls," he said.

One person, though, was not surprised by the lackluster performance of the border cameras: Scott Stewart, senior terrorism and security analyst at Stratfor, a geopolitical intelligence company.

As a surveillance tool, he said, cameras are most useful after the commission of a crime in identifying perpetrators.

Cameras, he said, are not as effective at deterring or stopping crime, especially when there are just 13 of them along a 1,200-mile stretch of the border.

"It would be wonderful if it would work, but I just remain skeptical," Stewart said. "We have a tendency to almost put too much stock in technology to provide security, and so sometimes that technology can provide us with a false sense of security."

Brandi Grissom may be reached at bgrissom@elpasotimes.com; 512-479-6606.






Border cameras by the numbers:
Total one-year grant: $2 million
Amount spent in first six months $625,000
Number of hits on the border camera Web site, Blueservo.com, Nov. 19-Dec. 17: 1,894,288
Number of cameras installed:
1-year objective: 200
6-month actual results: 13
Number of arrests:
1-year objective: 1,200
6-month actual results: 3
Number of drug seizures:
1-year objective: 500
6-month actual results: 1
Dollar amount of funds forfeited:
1-year objective: $25,000
6-month actual results: 0
Number of incidents reported to law enforcement:
1-year objective: 50,000
6-month actual results: 8
Number of referrals to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol
1-year objective: 4,500
6-month actual results: 6
Source: Six-month progress report by the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition


http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_11552806btained under Texas Public Information Act.

El Paso Times took the article and comments down. I wonder why.

Chron did too.

Originally Posted by butterbean

El Paso Times took the article and comments down. I wonder why.

Chron did too.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_11552806btained
this one worked for me. the link posted above in the story had the letter "O" before http