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Glitches hit Texas border camera

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published November 4, 2006

AUSTIN, Texas - Texas launched its ambitious effort to use Internet users to watch the border for illegal immigrants. But the network of surveillance cameras Friday was plagued by technical problems, the images grainy and cameras placed so high it was hard to distinguish a person from, say, a bush.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who announced plans over the summer to spend $5-million on the "virtual posse," asked for "forgiveness on the front end of this," but dismissed the problems as routine computer glitches.

"I'm sure that as you start a big program like this that you will have some glitches," Perry, up for re-election, said in Brownsville, along the Mexican border.

The cameras will operate at criminal hot spots. Members of the public who see something suspicious over the Web cameras can e-mail authorities.

However, the Web site does not work on some Internet browsers. The images were grainy and it was hard to tell whether, say, a group was a family crossing a parking lot or a band of smugglers with their human cargo.

The view from one camera on the Rio Grande was largely obscured by a bush. In another, all that was visible was the license plates on passing cars.

Officials have access to footage from about 15 cameras, spokeswoman Kathy Walt said, but only eight appear on the Web site.

Since the cameras were installed, local law enforcement officers have spotted some suspicious doings, including water crossings and nighttime activity at rally points, Walt said.

[Last modified November 4, 2006, 00:57:39]