Texas Governor Rick Perry, who I generally loathe, has announced a $5 million dollar plan to install hundreds of webcams equipped with night vision along the U.S.-Mexico border. The idea is that you, me and grandma would be able to view the webcams 24/7 and if we spot anyone trying to hop across the border we could call a toll free number and report it.
This is an idea with a lot of promise, but I have some concerns about it working. So does Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, who called the idea "half-baked." I think he hit the nail on the head that right now it is, indeed, half-baked.
One of the biggest problems is that I don't believe someone would be able to report an illegal crossing fast enough for it to make a difference. It would likely only take a person seconds to be out of dodge of the camera and gone. By the time the person who spots the border hopper gets on the phone and reports it I can't help but think it would be too late.
I should note, though, that the live feed would also be available to law enforcement and the border patrol, so that makes it a little more feasible that someone spotted on camera crossing the border could be caught, but still unlikely.
But that doesn't mean we shouldn't explore this idea which, as I said, has a lot of promise.
Perhaps an 'instant report' button could be placed on the webcam website so someone, at the click of the mouse, could report someone crossing. The problem with that, of course, is that with anyone having access anyone could just click the button to mess around. Of course, people can call the toll free number and report one to mess around too. Therefore, maybe certain people that could be trusted could be signed up to voluntarily watch the cameras and only these people would be given the 'instant report' option. People who could be trusted to only report real sightings.
It's not far fetched people would be willing to do this, afterall, we do have the Minutemen who patrol the border voluntarily.
In the end, the idea is a long way from perfect, and I think spending $5 million dollars without working out these problems first is a mistake, but I'll at least give Governor Perry (or one of his advisers) credit for having an original idea regarding this issue — even if it's "half-baked" as it stands.
June 21, 2006 at 2:37 am
This idea has one fatal flaw: if the illegal border crossers are not nude, no one will watch the webcams and they will not be caught.