Webcam border stake-out

Justin Hall twittered this website:

"The Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition has joined BlueServo 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 BlueServo Virtual Community Watch 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 BlueServo website and directly monitor suspicious criminal activity along the border via this virtual fence."

Virtual Stake Outs - Live Border Cameras

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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zuzu

@36 Simon Cameron

In France.

You just finish watching La Haine?
Kay the Complainer

@38, that whole “eyes on the street” thing works better with people actually on the street. You know, when the watchers and the watched see each other face to face and can get to know each other.

Of course your grandchildren have the right to play without fear of being harmed. Of course they do. But they don’t need to be constant camera surveillance. That’s what adults are for.
Tom Hale

Shouldn’t Americans want to stop foreigners from illegally entering their country? It just seems like the right thing to do.
okcalvin

The best homeland security cameras are the ones C-SPAN has on Congress.
the_boy

You know what was bad? The stasi. You know what would make it worse? Providing everyone with all the surveillance equipment, and just leaving it there with vague notions of “reporting to authorities”.

It’s easy to start this on the border – illegal immigrants have little efficacy and power to protest and unfair system, and we can get used to joe racist playing border patrol for funsees. And then we’ll set up inner city cameras, and instead of having paid people watch them like in the UK, we will just let whoever wants to do it for fun. A scary bureaucracy is at least accountable. Anonymous tipsters with a police state apparatus are free to do what they will. Gah. They’ll move this from inner cities to schools, and within a generation we are all beningly maybe-monitored and just used to security everywhere.

Border security is a kind of pathetic thing to sacrifice this much freedom and common sense for. It’s a useless system, security theatre, and it can lead to tyranny without the tyrants.

No thanks, Texas. Please stop giving the rest of the nation horrible, horrible ideas.
Desertsail912

Hale, it hasn’t been a problem for years in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, states that benefit highly from immigrant labor (not going to argue the right or wrong of that). All of a sudden, someone sees a Mexican in rural Pennsylvania, and the whole country goes nuts. It just drives me nuts when there’s been a system, albeit illegal, working for years and out of the blue, some jingoist fear-mongering politicians go hay-wire.
zuzu

The best homeland security cameras are the ones C-SPAN has on Congress.

Too bad C-SPAN is CAM encrypted, instead of provided as Clear QAM.
Takuan

how will they get their pot then? Or their fruit picked?
Elliot

This is just plain creepy. And I think I read a book that warned about this.
Procrastes

What’s missing here is a scoring system.

5 gold for a confirmed event
10 gold for an arrest
100 gold for a conviction
10000 gold for bigfoot
bolamig

Publicly monitored webcams are the future. They just are. Might as well get used to it.
zuzu

an innovative real-time surveillance program designed to empower the public to proactively participate in fighting border crime.

How about an innovative real-time program designed to empower the public to overcome their xenophobia and stop restricting freedom of movement?
MrsBug

@#3 Zuzu, you radical, you!! If people started broadening their minds and stopped hating on immigrants, where would that put us…..oh, wait…
zikzak

I like how it specifies which direction of movement should be monitored for.

“If you see movement from the left to the right it’s just white people sneaking over to buy cheap drugs, so don’t worry about it.”
sheshe

this is actually really smart.. i’ll do one for my business in the bad neighborhood. free online security!

@#2 i agree. heh
WeightedCompanionCube

hopefully this will keep nutjobs indoors staring at their screens instead of outside doing actual harm

ah, irony!

I’m reading these arguments about why crowd sourcing your surveillance is a bad thing…

for reasons of accountability, reliability, potential for manipulation, etc…

yet crowd-sourced sites such as Slashdot and Digg are always jumping at shadows and putting items of VERY questionable authenticity on the front page… even BB has been known to run with a blog of a blog of a rumor…

where’s the outcry about the trustworthiness of news that has been crowd-sourced?

Glass houses, throwing stones.
Aloisius

Zuzu, are you saying that countries shouldn’t be free to to restrict movement of people or goods across their borders?
GregLondon

weird
grimc

Use it to report “Minutemen”.

“Officer, I just saw a group of armed men walking along the border. Rifles, pistols, even big knives.”
okiedokie

Well, looking at the URLs presented for the camera names I have confimed that Camera 705, 923 & 346 are all the same camera. Whenever you click in it appears to randomize the names and the still photos associated with each camera, making you think they have more than they actually do.
gabrielm

an innovative real-time surveillance program designed to empower the public to proactively participate in fighting border crime.

Exactly! They could/should have used software to detect changes to the images. There are many free open-source programs available. The real reason for this program is to let people feel involved.
unsafe at any speed

Good idea, but not a substitute for a good border fence or a Border Patrol that is actually allowed to do it’s job.
zikzak

This effort depends on a decent signal-to-noise ratio. That is, it depends on engaging only participants who are both competent at spotting suspicious activity, and genuinely interested in assisting the government in cracking down on migrants.

I see that one needs little more than an email address to create a Virtual Border Watch account: http://www.blueservo.net/caccount.php

If people opposed to these Orwellian and xenophobic methods were to sign up and “help” by reporting nonexistent violations, the program would become almost completely ineffective.
Iason

Let’s encourage vigilantism! Horray!
Noelegy

Ouch. This is throwing tissues at a broken dam. Our immigration system is definitely broken, and I’m not sure this is how to fix it. Cameras are all too vulnerable to vandalism, just to note one general objection to this idea.

I’m trying to think of how to word this without it being seen as flamebait, but the meme that “they’re just looking for work” is an oft-repeated one. I wonder how many people who don’t live in border states know how many hospitals are closing down due to the cost of providing healthcare for illegals. It used to be just a border city issue, but it’s pretty universal now.

Yeah, our immigration system is broken. Our healthcare system is broken, wadded up, and stomped on. And we keep throwing ridiculous ideas at both issues.
Shannon

Assuming cameras are going to exist — and they are — then it’s better that they be publicly accessible… It adds a layer of accountability because it also lets you watch the police. Think of how much police misconduct cellphone cameras* has captured. This could take that up a level.

* Most recently: http://digg.com/world_news/Oakland_Police_Officer_Shoots_Unarmed_Man_Handcuffed_Man
unsafe at any speed

gss ws wrng. Lt’s pn th brdrs, tr dwn th fncs nd pt p bg wlcm sgn. ftr ll, w nd mr drgs nd crmnls cmng nt th .S. Lt thm cm n by th mllns nd vrwhlm r nfr-strctr, bnkrpt r scl srvcs, tms r gd nywy rght?
zuzu

Zuzu, are you saying that countries shouldn’t be free to to restrict movement of people or goods across their borders?

Not on the basis of citizenship or visas, no. Perhaps explicitly exiled people convicted of particular extreme crimes such as genocide.

But these are just people looking for work, and there are businesses willing to hire them. There’s no legitimate reason for a third party to interfere with that mutual arrangement. If you want to talk about citizenship entitlements such as unemployment insurance, public education, and voting — those can be provided upon proof of citizenship.
Simon Cameron

@Zuzu

I can’t say I put much thought into the comment. It was meant to be read ironically.
zuzu

Let’s encourage vigilantism! Horray!

I’M BATMAN!
Hal

hopefully this will keep nutjobs indoors staring at their screens instead of outside doing actual harm
Alfie

There are several reasons this is an assured “Fail”
1. Texas
2. Sherrif
3. Who wants to come into the US during a depression?

This is all part of the pathetic Dobbsian notion that illegal immigration is an issue of any sort other than a humanitarian one.

Weak sauce all around.
Ernunnos

There’s no legitimate reason for a third party to interfere with that mutual arrangement.

No true Scottsman fallacy. There are plenty of reasons, which you may not regard as legitimate, but others do. The presence of immigrants has external costs for third parties, and those parties have every right to object.
WeightedCompanionCube

Zuzu – C-SPAN is available as analog and ClearQAM on Comcast around here. It does vary though.
the_boy

So the way to break this is spam it with noise. Get a bunch of people with anarcho-libertarian tendencies, some free time, and minimal coordination, and within a month you can probably convince the people using this that it’s a useless system.

Seriously, if 4chan decided to, they could probably bring about 10,000 hits on one camera over the course of a few hours. The system is broken as soon as some people who dislike it decide to spend a little bit of time breaking it.
JJR1971

I wonder what kind of penalties exist for false reports…or did they think of that (oops!).

I would be one pissed off Border Guard if I kept getting sent on wild goose chases by “internet rumors”. Just sayin’ *wink wink*
zuzu

Publicly monitored webcams are the future. They just are. Might as well get used to it.

http://plif.courageunfettered.com/archive/wc235.gif

The next generation of entertainment will be “Universal Television”, in which anyone can watch anyone else at any time. Finally made obsolete, the concept of art passes away.
AirPillo

I wonder what kind of penalties exist for false reports…or did they think of that (oops!).

I would be one pissed off Border Guard if I kept getting sent on wild goose chases by “internet rumors”. Just sayin’ *wink wink*

Imagine their frustration when one person in particular happens to be steadfastly determined to make the border guards intercept mule deer crossing the border.
Mattz

Seems like a wonderful way to perpetrate continuing racism.
I agree that this system could easily be quite nastily owned by an enterprising forum group with enough free liquid hate sloshing around. Sort’ve like the SA Goons. Tis just a shame that the majority of the forums with that kind of power have a distinctly racist bent to them.

Anyway, I’m totally sure this will protect American jobs caused by a collapsing economy that got in this state due to extensive war-mongering and ridiculous borrowing. Good luck with that.
katyalaia

I want the iPhone version.
Anonymous

They should have one in the White House
so that when the President thinks up
stupid ideas ..tax payers can give him
a shock on his behind.
Another one can be installed in the Vice President’s office so he does not pressure the
President to do cruel and unusual things.
Think of the savings!!
AirPillo

how will they get their pot then? Or their fruit picked?

I know that was tongue-in-cheek, but:

I’d do it… I’m not too proud ;__;
hoffmanbike

i just submitted a report on some suspicous activity.

“latin men; 3 of them; about 5 ft 6 in; carrying wrapped packages and backpacks; one package appears to be frankincense; another one appears to be myrrh; and the last appears to be carrying gold.”
yrogerg

Alfie: Who wants to come into the US during a depression?

Umm, the depression is world-wide? And being poor in America is still a better standard of living than being poor in a lot of other places.
Simon Cameron

“Zuzu, you radical, you!! If people started broadening their minds and stopped hating on immigrants, where would that put us”

In France.
curtismayfield

anywhere there are farms, there are “illegal” immigrants. why not put these up at entrances to farms?
Oren Beck

Good core idea=many eyes and local archives on “public spaces” BAD application=using it for repression.

Look at the “Transparent Society” works by David Brin. Contrast his views on how such things could work with the TX farce. Or my more mundane first steps towards his visions.

A public park watched by cameras. With The local cable system showing what’s going on. The street leading to my Grandchidren’s school. That school’s playground. Crime of many types cannot happen with that many eyes watching. See- the difference is WHO the watchers are. And WHY the cameras are there too. If the park my Grandchildren play in has such cameras going it makes the kids “Less at risk” for some crimes. I do NOT consider the camera itself an invasion in a public space. The camera’s images being applied to repression is a totally not comparable usage. Unless one becomes surrealist enough to proclaim cameras as unfair to criminals.
zikzak

@hoffmanbike: Nice! As for me, I couldn’t believe my eyes when, watching the feed I saw:

“A pickup truck full of Mexicans drove by, and it looked like they had glossy photo paper with a license plate number on it covering their plates…”

Naturally, I reported it immediately so that the authorities could take further action.

What other suspicious activity have people reported?
lukus

I heard a similar scheme was piloted in East London, where people could watch their local neighbourhood cameras and report suspicious activity to the police.

* It encourages people to be suspicious of their neighbours and breaks down any notion of trust
* Moves away from the idea of having a patrolling police-force
* Makes vigilantism more possible
* Makes stalking more possible
* The reporters will most likely be given anonymity, and therefore won’t be held accountable – (guess you can get back at that noisy neighbour after all)

There is a solution though .. http://gizmodo.com/5020390/cctv+busting-diy-led-glasses-makes-robbing-a-storebankwarehouse-4x-easier