In first year, Texas’ $2 million Webcam border watch nets just 11 arrests
Published: July 13, 2009
Updated 4 months ago
The state of Texas spent $2 million in federal grant money to install 14 Webcams along its border with Mexico. After its first year, the crowd-sourced surveillance program is out of money and has only yielded 11 arrests, according to published reports.
Texas’ “BlueServo,” dubbed a “virtual stake-out,” was supposed to be revolutionary. Why hire border guards when the eyes of the Internet could be harnessed to prevent unauthorized border crossings?
Texas officials predicted that their planned 200 cameras would lead to the capture of at least 4,500 border-jumpers and roughly 1,200 drug-related arrests.
Results, however, fell far short of the program’s goals, according to the Associated Press. The cameras have deterred about 300 attempting to cross illegally, the state said. Of the 11 arrests made, just three came within the program’s first six months.
While some 125,000 individuals registered to become “virtual Texas deputies,” many appeared to do so out of mere curiosity. And though numerous comments were left by the site’s users, they rarely pointed out illegal activity.
“One report simply read ‘armadillo by the water,’ while another offered some advice,” noted The Dallas Morning News.
“Just a word of warning: A moment ago I saw a spider crawl across the top of the camera,” reads another, according to the report. “You might want to try and prevent any webs from being spun across the lens area by treating with repellent or take other measures.”
State Senator Eliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso) told the AP: “Instead of making Texas safer, it has made Texas the source of international ridicule.”
A spokesman for Perry said the expectations had simply been set too high.
Perry, who is running for reelection in 2010, praised the Obama administration’s $700 million border protection plan and called on the federal government to deploy 1,000 soldiers to Texas for border patrol duty. Perry has also asked the Texas legislature for $135 million to fund state-run immigration controls.
Sen. Eliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso) criticized Perry’s request for soldiers, saying Democrats and Republicans do not support “militarization of the border.”
“I support 1,000 new effectively trained Border Patrol or customs agents, but not the use of the military,” he said.
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More disturbing than the effort only netted 14 arrests, when do 14 webcams cost USD2 Million ??
That’s just insulting.
bwahahaha
Seems to be working quite well. Do the math. 14 webcams at 2 million vs. 11 illegal aliens at an estimated 500 thousand per life in government aide and welfare programs equaling 7 million (estimated). Rick Perry just saved the state of Texas 5 million. Go Rick…….
Sure…..thats only $181,818 spent per arrest. Nice, Shiney and worthless POS cameras to look at.
yet another ace repuke program.
epic fail
Hey Shapleigh you moron! Texass has been the butt of international ridicule since Texans bribed congress into letting them become part of the rational world. As said by Gen. George Tecumseth Sherman, “If I owned Texas and Hell, I’d rent out Texas and live in Hell”………The only good thing that ever came out of Texass was an empty Greyhound Bus.
If the Earth needed an enema, El Paso is where you’d stick the syringe…. Texas, the sweaty crotch of the Universe.
The age-old pesky U.S.-Mexico border problem has taxed the resources of both countries, led to long lists of injustices, and appears to be heading only for worse troubles in the future. Guess what? The border problem can never be solved. Why? Because the border IS the problem! It’s time for a paradigm change.
Never fear, a satisfying, comprehensive solution is within reach: the Megamerge Dissolution Solution. Simply dissolve the border along with the failed Mexican government, and megamerge the two countries under U.S. law, with mass free 2-way migration eventually equalizing the development and opportunities permanently, with justice and without racism, and without threatening U.S. sovereignty or basic principles.
Take the time to read my groundbreaking article by Googling “Megamerge Dissolution Solution”, or click
http://tlwinslow.weebly.com/megamerge-the-dissolution-solution.html