Progress slow on border Web cameras plan

By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau

El Paso Times

AUSTIN -- It will be a while yet before Web surfers can log on and check out video feeds from hundreds of surveillance cameras Republican Gov. Rick Perry said last month would soon broadcast online footage of illegal border crossings.

"We never anticipated starting out with that many," Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said. "You would have to ramp up. We're not too far off what the governor intended."

On June 1, Perry announced a $5 million state border security initiative to install hundreds of cameras on private land along the border. The feed from those cameras would be available live over the Internet.

A Perry spokeswoman told the Times after the announcement that the first cameras would be installed in about a month. A month later, the program is only in testing phases after the state received dozens of inquiries from private technology companies interested in helping set up the program.

Walt said local law enforcement agencies are testing "a small number" of border cameras and the Web site would be operational in "less than two months."

"The ultimate goal of this is a law enforcement goal, and the public being able to view that will come as the system is ready to go," Walt said.