Commentary: Virtual Border Patrol

In a related story to "The Great Wall of America," you can now assist the National Guard in watching our borders. Texas Homeland Security is now broadcasting live images over the internet from eight cameras located at hot spots for illegal activity, highway rest stops, and inspection stations. Previously these images were only available to law enforcement and border patrol. Now, however, concerned citizens can monitor our borders online and email reports of suspicious activity. This is a test project that is predicted to expand to seventy cameras located along the Texas/Mexico border, with some cameras having zoom lenses and thermal capacity. Several civil rights groups oppose the program on the belief that it will lead to racial profiling and fraudulent crime reports. The story can be located here.

Think about it this way: Imagine your local police station decided to put up cameras all over your neighborhood (or all over a part of town). Everyone had the ability to watch the cameras online and email suspicious activity to the police. How comfortable would that make you?

I actually signed up to see what this website entails. Anyone can sign up, so long as they have an email address and pick a city and state to live in. There are no terms of usage on the website either. Anyone can virtually patrol our borders. Comforting, really comforting.