Texas Begins Online Test Of Mexico Border Cameras

[IRiSHMaFIA]

By Reuters
InformationWeek

SAN ANTONIO - Texas began testing a Web site Friday that enables anyone with Internet access to keep watch on the state's border with Mexico.

Only eight out of dozens of cameras planned for the $5 million project were operating Friday. They showed U.S. Border Patrol cars, trees, the Rio Grande River and an occasional cow.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry has made securing the state's 1,254-mile border with Mexico a major part of television ads in his re-election campaign.

The cameras at www.texasborderwatch.com will also be equipped with night vision lenses for 24-hour surveillance.

A yellow button on the site reads "Report Suspicious Activity." Clicking the button sends an e-mail to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

"It's another step toward having a police state," said Jaime Martinez, national treasurer of the League of United Latin American Citizens. "Pretty soon they're going to be coming into our homes and we're going to have to start giving them permission, and we can't have that."

Perry said when announcing the program in June, "I look at this as no different from the neighborhood watches that we have had for years and years."

Shannon McCauley, head of the Texas Minuteman group, which carries out volunteer patrols of the border, declined to comment on the Web cams.

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Americans pay billions for border security yet they put these cams up so citizens can guard their border online.

This is going to turn into a sport and entertainment for some, and all at the expense of people just trying to make a bit of money to feed their families.

I know some that cross have bad intentions, but the majority just want to be able to survive, and entering the USA in this manner is their only way to do it.

[Skylace]

[IRiSHMaFIA]

Border cam reveals only alien typo

By Bud Kennedy
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Texas' border video webcams were unveiled Friday, and so far, all they've caught is one spelling violator.

According to our state Homeland Security office, we are supposed to sit at home in our Bermuda shorts and watch eight test cameras, then e-mail if we see any felons or terrorists with dirty bombs sneaking across the Rio Grande.

Sure, dude. I'll crank up the computer and tune in today during the football games. Come to think of it, it'd be easier to find the TCU Horned Frogs on TV if they would play in front of the border cams.

From what I could tell Friday afternoon from www.texasborderwatch.com, Texas' border is already far more secure.

Absolutely no immigration violators will sneak past what appears to be a line of moving cars, the scene from Camera No. 1.

Other cameras seemed to show a parking lot and a lake dam near McAllen, all apparently innocent scenes but obviously sensitive locations in the war on terror.

I didn't see any intruders on the Web site Friday.

But I did call Austin to report one alien speller.

For most of the day, the page promised eight webcams and complete "public access."

Well -- not exactly.

The original Web site dropped a strategic letter from public.

Either somebody made a mistake, or Texas was going into the peekaboo video industry.

When I called to report this incursion against the English language, nobody in Austin seemed to know how to fix the Web page, much less how to fix the border.

"That's not our Web site," said Bryan Bradsby of the state Information Resources Department, the registered source of state government Web pages. With a groan, he added, "I have no power to edit anything on that page."

I tried the Texas Department of Public Safety. After all, the Web site bears the state seal and declares that its purpose is "Securing the Border for the People of Texas."

I figured the DPS would want to know about a -- er -- public mistake that was borderline embarrassing.

"We don't deal with that," said DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange. "You'll have to call the Homeland Security office."

The receptionist took a message.

I guess it's a good thing I wasn't reporting a terrorist.

Finally, I called the Plano company that designed the cameras and Web site. According to a San Antonio Express-News report Friday, TRGear was paid $100,000 for the Web test. It's one of seven companies trying out for a contract to build the state's proposed $5 million "virtual wall" of border webcams, officially the Texas Virtual Neighborhood Border Watch Program.

"Can't talk about it," said Jack Woodmansee, a retired Army lieutenant general and president of TRGear, which sells tactical and rescue equipment and operates security services.

Not even about bad spelling? "Can't talk about it," Woodmansee said. "You'll have to call Austin."

By this time, the entire Web site was overloaded under the weight of 35,000 viewers, all keeping a sharp eye out in case any dope smugglers or terrorists tried to crawl past that line of cars.

Eventually, Kathy Walt of the governor's office called back.

"This is a stress test," she said.

This isn't the final version, she said, "but it's working and people are accessing it."

Some of the cameras are focused on fixed landmarks to test the clarity of the webcams, Walt said.

Eventually, she said, the cameras will be aimed at locations where law officers find "significant criminal activity," such as drug-running.

If we see anything on camera -- after giving an e-mail address and downloading video software -- we're supposed to click an e-mail link marked "Report Suspicious Activity Here."

The e-mail will go to a state command post in Austin and also to local authorities. State officers will replay the video and decide whether to respond, Walt said.

She didn't know about the misspelling.

The embarrassing typo was finally fixed at midafternoon Friday. By then, thousands of CNN viewers had logged in to see the border cameras and giggled at those dumb Texans.

Apparently, nobody noticed the mistake for 16 hours.

Hope we're better at catching crooks.

[faceless]

You can just bet there's going to be thousands of people sitting there, watching like hawks - looking at other people making the effort to better themselves and actually be productive. And the irony will be lost on them of course...

I wonder if the phone lines they use to report these people are premium-rate? That would be funny.