Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

After spending $200,000 on a pilot program that let Internet users play border guards, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has come up with 15 times that amount in federal dollars to reactivate and expand the number of cameras. It's a commentary on the wisdom of the expenditure that the state refused to budget its own border security dollars on what is largely a symbolic political stunt.

With federal cameras already in use by the Border Patrol, the new program is supposed to allow Internet viewers to scan camera images and alert authorities if they see anything suspicious. It's a Web surfer version of the self-appointed Minuteman border patrols. Concerned citizens can man their observation posts from the comfort of their homes.

Meanwhile, the law enforcement officials with the responsibility for securing the border are begging for adequate funding to hire more officers and pay for overtime. The head of the governor's new Border Security Council, Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos, told the Associated Press that lawmakers must provide more money for salaries. The Texas Border Coalition chair, Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, says the governor's Web cams are duplicating federal efforts and "reinventing the wheel."

During its initial month-long trial run, the Web cams registered 28 million hits from citizens, generated more than 13,000 e-mails to law enforcement and resulted in 10 documented arrests. That worked out to $20,000 per person detained, hardly a testimonial to the system's cost-effectiveness. The cameras also had numerous technical problems. Some of the images were so grainy it was hard to make out what viewers were seeing.

Sophisticated smuggling rings would have access to the same Internet feeds, making it doubtful that serious criminals would show up on a candid camera. Citizen volunteers, be they Minutemen or Internet couch potatoes, cannot provide the effective presence of trained officers that are needed along our borders.

To his credit, Perry opposes the $1 billion boondoggle for 700 miles of security fence along the U.S.-Mexican border. Rather than pushing a Web cam system that provides symbolic security, state officials should be using the $110 million the Legislature budgeted for border security to hire real rather than virtual guardians.