{"id":124,"date":"2014-05-01T15:35:41","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T15:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/gordon-hull\/?page_id=124"},"modified":"2014-05-05T17:41:13","modified_gmt":"2014-05-05T21:41:13","slug":"texas-virtual-border-watch","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/gordon-hull\/case-studies\/texas-virtual-border-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Virtual Border Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gordon Hull \/ UNCCA lot of the ideas behind this case study derive from Koskela 2011.<\/p>\n

1. The Program<\/h3>\n

Visit and explore: http:\/\/www.texasborderwatch.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

2. Justification of the Program<\/h3>\n

\"River<\/a>The following statement<\/a> is by Donald L. Reay, executive director of the program:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen someone reports suspicious activity, the message goes to a server, and is then passed on to designated locations, which decide if a response is certified. Designated locations are the sheriffs. In the first 48 hours of the project we had 200,000 alerts. I didn\u2019t see all of them but there was one case, for example, of movement in an isolated area. It was certainly out of the ordinary. This time it turned out that we didn\u2019t find any wrongdoing there. \u2026<\/p>\n

If we encounter a person we suspect is undocumented, then we pass them on to the federal authorities. It\u2019s misinformation by our own media to say that we targeting immigration. The reason we\u2019ve set up the system is to sustain our decreased crime rate due to increased patrol numbers.<\/p>\n

Of course there are people who will talk about the Big Brother thing, others who will talk about immigration, and others who will say it\u2019s voyeuristic. We know we\u2019ll get criticism. But we know we\u2019re doing this for the safety of the nation. We have a pretty open border with our neighbors to the south and bad people could take advantage of that. I\u2019m sure there\u2019ll be vandalism attempts once they find out where the cameras are. That\u2019s why we\u2019re not telling them where they are! And that\u2019s not infringing on privacy\u2014we\u2019re not looking in people\u2019s windows. These cameras are in wide open spaces where citizens asked for them\u201d<\/p>\n

Discussion questions<\/h4>\n
    \n
  1. What values does Reay claim the Border Watch program upholds?<\/li>\n
  2. Why do those values matter?<\/li>\n
  3. Are there any values that would be undermined by the Border Watch program?\u00a0 Why do those values matter?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    3. Politics and images<\/h3>\n

    Koskela writes: \u201cIf we take seriously the claims that visual images are political, and that the person using surveillance equipment\u2014in this case, watching the website on her\/his computer\u2014does not find knowledge but creates it, we can ask what kind of knowledge an American who is committed enough to do the observation is likely to create. If different audiences provide different readings of same images, what kind of readings are the patriotic Americans likely to give? If the interpretations have both deliberate and unintended consequences, what might these consequences be in the case of the Texas Virtual Border Watch Program?\u201d (55)<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. What is the claim that images are political?\u00a0 Explain this, and come up with two examples (not from the Border Watch program).<\/li>\n
    2. What does it mean to say that the person watching \u201ccreates\u201d knowledge, but does not \u201cfind\u201d it?<\/li>\n
    3. Provide answers to her last two questions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      4. Security and other values<\/h3>\n
        \n
      1. Is immigration a security problem?\u00a0 Why or why not?\u00a0 Is there a better value or set of values through which to understand immigration?<\/li>\n
      2. Provide a definition of \u201csecurity\u201d according to which immigration would be a security problem.\u00a0 Then provide a definition of \u201csecurity\u201d according to which immigration would not<\/i> be a security problem.\u00a0 Which definition is better, and why?<\/li>\n
      3. Assume for the moment that immigration is in fact a security problem.\u00a0 How does the Texas Virtual Border Watch uphold, or not uphold, the value of security?\u00a0 Is there a better way to achieve the same value?<\/li>\n
      4. Koskela proposes: \u201can automated computer system would likely be more effective than the Internet site, but it would mediate a very different image. It is essential to provide the anxious public with the impression that they are able to \u2018do something\u2019\u201d (60). Assess this statement.\u00a0 What does it say about the possible meanings of \u201csecurity?\u201d<\/li>\n
      5. Are the issues surrounding Texas Border Watch driven by technology (in other words, is this appropriately categorized as a \u201ctechnology ethics\u201d problem)?\u00a0 If so, why?\u00a0 If not, why not?<\/li>\n
      6. Do the various motives of the observers (the people who watch at home, and report suspicious activity) matter in assessing the ethics of the program?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        5. Sources<\/h3>\n

        Koskela, Hille 2011. \u201c\u2019Don\u2019t mess with Texas!\u2019 Texas Virtual Border Watch Program<\/i> and the (botched) politics of responsibilization,\u201d Crime, Media, Culture <\/i>7, 49-65.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Gordon Hull \/ UNCCA lot of the ideas behind this case study derive from Koskela 2011. 1. The Program Visit and explore: http:\/\/www.texasborderwatch.com\/ 2. Justification of the Program The following statement is by Donald L. Reay, executive director of the program: \u201cWhen someone reports suspicious activity, the message goes to a server, and is then […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":407,"featured_media":0,"parent":71,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-124","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P3hMo6-20","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/gordon-hull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/gordon-hull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/gordon-hull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/gordon-hull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/407"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/gordon-hull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/gordon-hull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/gordon-hull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/124\/revisions\/129"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/gordon-hull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/gordon-hull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}