City-wide cameras getting closer
McALLEN — The city is one step closer to installing city-wide video surveillance cameras.
This week, the city commission approved a $335,000 contract with a San Antonio company tasked with building a wireless Internet network that will provide the backbone to the surveillance program.
The wireless network, which would cover downtown, Bicentennial Boulevard and Municipal Park, will link police video surveillance cameras to an underground fiber optic Internet cable that runs through the city.
Code enforcement and traffic operations could also use the system, which might ultimately be opened up for public use.
A wireless surveillance program has been in the works since 2007, Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said.
The cameras - which will record video and store it in a police database - will be used primarily to help identify crime suspects, corroborate victims' accounts of a crime and help authorities detect evidence after a crime has occurred, Rodriguez said.
They will not typically be actively monitored by police - though the cameras do have that capability.
Meanwhile, city leaders are spending the week watching demonstrations from companies seeking to sell McAllen the actual surveillance cameras to be used in the system.
Rodriguez plans to install 101 video cameras in parks, along trails and throughout commercial areas.
He also hopes to partner with residents' associations to install cameras at the entrance to some neighborhoods, though he has stressed the cameras wouldn't be aimed into private property.
McAllen has received 21 bids from companies selling the cameras. City leaders hope to select a camera vendor within a month, said McAllen's information technology director, Belinda Mercado.
The city received nine bids for the wireless network, which was ultimately awarded to INX Inc. Five of those bids were less expensive than the one put forward by INX, but the city commission approved the INX proposal on Mercado's urging.
Mercado said INX's system takes advantage of the city's fiber optic cable, which connects to City Hall, the airport and the police department to the Internet. By linking to the cable in multiple spots, INX's system increases the speed and reliability of the network while reducing the likelihood of interference, city leaders said.
INX installed the wi-fi system in San Antonio, where it is primarily used for traffic cameras. It has also installed a wi-fi system at Texas State University in San Marcos.
Installation of the McAllen wireless network will take six to nine months, Rodriguez said.
The city has projected that it would ultimately cost about $6 million to blanket all of McAllen with wireless Internet access.
City leaders hope to receive millions of dollars in grant money from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration for the project. In December, they'll learn whether they will receive that money.
Some civil rights activists have criticized the plan, saying it violates residents' privacy and has a potential for abuse.
But city officials say the cameras are necessary to help protect residents and bolster the city's image as a safe place - an especially critical task at a time when some of have expressed concern over whether drug violence in Mexico has spilled into the United States.
No other Valley law enforcement agency has a surveillance program as extensive as the one McAllen is moving forward with, though Harlingen uses cameras to detect people who run red lights. Police video surveillance is common in other parts of the county like New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.
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Ryan Holeywell covers McAllen, PSJA, the Mid-Valley and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4446.
