Are you all a tag team?
Posted on 12/23/2008 4:04:43 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
EL PASO, Texas — A month after going online, a network of Internet cameras trained on the Texas-Mexico border is being credited with the arrest of three people and the seizure of about 550 pounds of pot.
Donald Reay, executive director of the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition, said more than 1.8 million hits had been recorded since November's launch of the Web site where anyone can take a peek at more than a dozen cameras aimed at the border.
Reay, whose group has partnered with private Internet company BlueServo for the $2 million project, said "upward of 1,000 e-mails" have also been sent to local law enforcement by users.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
About BlueServo
http://www.blueservo.net/about.php
The Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition (TBSC) has joined BlueServoSM in a public-private partnership to deploy the Virtual Community Watch, an innovative real-time surveillance program designed to empower the public to proactively participate in fighting border crime.
The TBSC BlueServoSM Virtual Community WatchSM is a network of cameras and sensors along the Texas-Mexico border that feeds live streaming video to www.BlueServo.net. Users will log in to the BlueServoSM website and directly monitor suspicious criminal activity along the border via this virtual fenceSM.
Citizens can sign up as Virtual Texas DeputiesSM to participate in border surveillance through this social network. Virtual Texas DeputiesSM from around the country will monitor the streaming video from these cameras 24/7 and report any suspicious activities directly to the Border Sheriffs via email. All emails regarding suspicious activity will be submitted anonymously.
The Public, acting as Virtual Texas DeputiesSM, is limited to reporting suspicious activities via email. Local county Sheriffs will respond to these reports, conduct all investigations, and take appropriate actions. This service will provide millions of dollars in benefits to local border Sheriffs, with the public acting as additional pairs of eyes for Deputies on the ground. This extra surveillance will allow the public to directly participate in reducing crime and improving their communities. It is a well-established fact that citizen involvement in community watch programs such as this one reduces crime.
Another facet of this program is the ability of the public to connect their own cameras to www.BlueServo.net to create local Virtual Neighborhood WatchesSM in order to protect their own homes, neighborhoods, and families from criminal acts. These Virtual Neighborhood WatchesSM can, in turn, be connected to form additional Virtual Community WatchesSM.
Membership on www.BlueServo.net site is free and open to anyone by signing up and obtaining a User Log-In. Because www.BlueServo.net is an internet social network, in the future, BlueServoSM anticipates that high volume of traffic to its website will generate advertising revenue to defray the operations cost of the Virtual Community WatchSM to the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition.
Texas Border Watch ping!
http://www.blueservo.net/about.php
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Headline?
Mexico City demands investigation of cameras
Border Cameras Face Eleven To Twelve Years In Prison: DoJ
"Privacy invasion of border crossers is a problem," agreed DoJ spokesman.
I don;t think the Chronicle and AP are very happy about this project.;^)
Univisión - 17 Dic 2008
EL PASO, Texas, EE.UU. (AP) - En su primer mes de funcionamiento, un sistema de cámaras de video conectadas a internet y colocadas en la frontera de México ... Alguaciles ven exito en camaras de video en frontera con Mexico
Houston Chronicle - 16 Dic 2008
© 2008 AP En su primer mes de funcionamiento, un sistema de camaras de video conectadas a internet y colocadas en la frontera de Mexico y Texas ha ... Se dispara la vigilancia en la frontera vía Internet
Diario Digital Juárez - 17 Dic 2008
El Paso— De un día para otro se disparó a más del doble el número de visitas a la página Web diseñada para que los ciudadanos monitoreen la frontera texana ... Produce muro virtual pocos resultados
Diario Digital Juárez - 16 Dic 2008
El Paso— A un mes de haber arrancado con una inversión de 2 millones de dólares, el muro ‘virtual’ a lo largo de la frontera texana con México ha tenido ...
“I can remember when 2 million was a lot to pay for 500 lbs of pot.”
The Mexican probably paid less than $2,500 for it in Mexico.
That’s probably less than .00003% of what comes in from Mexico every year. Mexicans supply the U.S. several thousand metric tons of pot a year, and there are about 2,205 pounds in a metric ton. From memory I believe I read that the government estimates that Mexicans supply the U.S. about 8 thousand metric tons a year.
“The Mexican probably paid less than $2,500 for it in Mexico.”
Should have read: “The Mexicans probably paid less than $25,000 for it in Mexico.” They probably paid a good bit less than that if it was bought in a large bulk purchase by a cartel, even less still if the cartel produced it.
Um, no. The LEOs that actually patrolled the border and nabbed the smugglers captured the contraband pot. The webcams just imaged the smugglers and someone watching the recorded data noticed the smugglers. The smugglers probably didn't expect anyone to actually go out there to arrest them.
I’ve looked at the cams and most are showing fast flowing waters of the river. At this time of the year no one is going to cross the river.
One day I noticed a cam was showing a part of a Mexican border town. That was interesting watching people come and go to homes and vehicles driving around. You could even watch someone walking their dog. But I haven’t seen that cam before or sinse. I guess there was a real chance of exposing a drug deal.
I think this project has been sabataged. Those few web cams are a joke and a token to frustrated people who would like to assist.
Why aren’t there more cams put in places where there’s activity?
Has this project been sabataged? What a shame.
Has this project been sabataged? Why aren’t there more in active areas?
$2 million grant for about a dozen cams in stupid places???
TAX PAYERS GOT SCAMMED! AND VIEWERS SOON FIGURE OUT IT’S NOT WORTH THE WATCH.
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.
“Has this project been sabataged? Why aren’t there more in active areas?”
Above my pay grade.
During Texas Border Volunteers operations this past weekend, 57 criminal trespassers were reported to the BP and they captured 32 of them. These included OTM’s from China and Africa. One woman, thought to be from East Africa, had been abandoned and was so severely dehydrated that they probably saved her life.
I repeat the few, maybe a dozen, cameras are showing fast flowing rivers or boring desert.
Only once there was a cam looking at a town over the border.
But otherwise a dozen cameras is a bad boring joke.
If you write down the #s of the cams, you’ll find that cam even has a different # but shows the same ol, same ol’.
It gives the impression there are more than a dozen cams. lol
How much alcohol and tobacco were the smugglers moving across the border?
Are you all a tag team?
“A month after going online, a network of Internet cameras trained on the Texas-Mexico border is being credited with the arrest of three people and the seizure of about 550 pounds of pot.”
I’ve seen several reports about this...they only report the criminal arrests, not the many aliens who are caught.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.