So far the governor has spent $4 million on a camera program that has led to only 26 arrests. According to Brandi Grissom (who wishes she could arrest her parents for giving her that name) of the Texas Tribune:
In 2008, the cameras were expected to generate 1,200 arrests, $25,000 in cash forfeitures, 50,000 incident reports and 4,500 immigration referrals. Under the grant objectives, the coalition was supposed to install 200 cameras. Instead, that year 13 cameras generated three arrests, zero cash forfeitures, eight incident reports, and six immigration referrals.
Meanwhile, in Cameron County alone, the sheriff’s department seizes 6 to 7 tons of narcotics every year — without the cameras. Could the money have been better spent? “I don’t need the cameras,” says Sheriff Omar Lucio. “I need the manpower.”
8 comments
It’s Grissom, with an m, as in Mary.
http://www.texastribune.org/about/staff/brandi-grissom/
@Tom: Fixed. Thanks.
Governor Good Hair(tm) came out against immigration enforcement. I guess cameras were seen as politically acceptable, if not sensible.
Aww…Cameron County…where I spent my childhood and where I go back to have REAL Mexican food, not this Mi Cocina garbage.
But yes, drug seizures. The Cameron County Sherrif’s department isn’t even getting their money’s worth. I can introduce you to ONE MAN who has produced somewhere on the order of $3M in seized cash and probably five to seven tons of narcotics in the last year alone. All he has is a pickup truck and a set of binoculars. True story.
IHCC may be on to something other than the REAL Mexican food thing.
The State (we the taxpayers) could “privatize” the war on drugs by offering to buy seized narcotics for $100,000 per ton and split the seized cash with the cowboy that brought it in, no badge necessary.
ONE MAN would have grossed $2.2 million in one year, the state would have netted $800,000, we would have been able to destroy 7 tons of narcotics and it would have cost the taxpayer nothing.
Of course, ONE MAN would have to pay his own expenses and take all the risk (which he is doing now) but the reward is in line with the risk instead of his situation now.
This is similar to the program the IRS uses to catch tax cheats.
@Dubious Brother
You’d be amazed at how imcompetent the “professionals” are in the drug war. DEA, ICE, locals…very few of them have any idea what they’re doing.
Different law enforcement agencies pay different amounts depending on what is siezed. As a rule of thumb, you’ll earn way more for the white stuff vs. the green stuff and federal agencies pay MUCH better than state or local agencies. Texas DPS caps their payments somewhere in the $10k range and the feds cap out in the $250k range. But there’s no set formula for how they payout works. The field agents write a report and submit an amount they think is comparable for the size of the bust. Subsequent property seizures, arrests, etc. all play a part too. The process involves A LOT of red tape, as should be assumed when you’re dealing with government.
Cash seizures are a little more straightforward because there’s cash in hand rather than some implied value of the drugs that were seized. As a rule of thumb, they’ll pay you 10%.
As far as risk goes, yeah, there’s some risk involved. It’s never pleasant having the real life, non-comedic version of Rico y Cheto (or whatever they were) show up at your doorstep with a pistol in hand. But then again, what’s that thing rappers say about it being part of the game?
I’d be more worried about Anton Chigurh showing up.
Drug war bounty hunters. Sounds like a good reality TV concept to me.
Most of those seizures where taken down by having men on the border working operations. If they trained those men to actually do surveillance and taught them what to look for, there would be much more taken down. The month of April last year, ONE MAN, took down 12,500 lbs of marijauna, 2,300 lbs of coke, and a few hundred thousand dollars all by knowing what to look for and how to think like the dopers.