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Tuesday, February 9, 2010 | Serving Del Rio and Val Verde County: Since 1929
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Watch the border online
Published November 5, 2006
Ordinary citizens may soon be able to help law enforcement officers fight crime along the border.
Anyone with access to a computer and the Internet now can log onto http://www.texasborderwatch.com and view one of nine cameras placed at locations along the Texas-Mexico border.
“What is the value of Neighborhood Watch? This is a Neighborhood Watch all along the border,” said Val Verde County Sheriff A. D’Wayne Jernigan of the program. “You and I don’t have enough tax money to pay people to watch these cameras. This way, the whole world is watching. I’m very excited about it. I think it’s an idea whose time has come.”
Watching any one of the nine individual cameras on the Texas Border Watch Test Site requires providing an email address and a password. Once a user provides his or her email address, a password is emailed and the log-in procedure can continue.
Users can select one of nine cameras, each located at undisclosed locations along the Texas-Mexico border, according to VVSO Chief Deputy Terry Simons.
Simons said that the location of the cameras won’t be made public, although he did say at least one of the cameras has been placed in Val Verde County.
Simons said the sheriff’s office here has been working with TRG Emergency Management Solutions of Plano to implement the pilot program in Val Verde County.
“This program will be paid for by the state, but we’ve put a lot of sweat equity into it,” Simons said.
One of the cameras is located along a highway, two show a busy parking lots, several show views of typical west Texas scrub land and two show views of the Rio Grande.
According to instructions on the site, “If you should notice any suspicious activity while viewing the camera images, please notify the State by selecting the ‘Report Suspicious Activity’ button under the camera view.”
The site instructions continue, “Although this is an initial test site, in the event you witness criminal activity and send a notification, law enforcement specific to that camera will be alerted. Thank you for your help in securing the Texas border.”
The Web cameras are part of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s plan for a “virtual border watch” program.
Simons said the camera concept parallels the military idea of “force multipliers.”
“If we can watch these locations by technical means, that let’s our officers do other things,” Simons said.
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