A watchful eye looms over their tiny New York neighborhood, bringing the newest tech to bear in the American fight to secure its northern land border: Four surveillance cameras sit atop a 120-foot tall Border Patrol tower in Champlain, New York.
Did they ask for it? No. Were these regular New Yorkers told the tower was being installed? No.
Yet, it looms overhead as they go about their daily lives.
“Nobody asked us if it was OK,” said Joella Wyatt of Champlain. Her home is less than 200 feet from Canada. Out of her 10 or so neighbors, she lives the closest to the surveillance tower. She worried: Can they see inside my house?
These days, Glass Road residents have mixed feelings about the cameras and their privacy and safety impacts. Over the last few years, the number of migrants using their street as an unofficial border crossing has slowly jumped up ― sometimes in a single day they see multiple groups cross.
Cameras at the U.S.-Canada border
Steve Bessette described what it feels like to live under constant surveillance.
Some time ago, he called Border Patrol for help as a simmering argument between his mail carrier and two migrants walking down Glass Road started to escalate. The officer that picked up already knew what was going on.
“I’m watching you completely,” he told Bessette.
“That thing can see into my kitchen, my bathroom and the upstairs bedroom,” Bessette said about the tower. “I do feel it is (invading my privacy) because I’m not doing anything illegal … but I sort of said, let them catch who they’re going to catch.”
Britaina Filion has stopped letting her kids play outside as much. She said her family at times can hear people talking in the corn fields next to their home.
Photographer Daria Bishop drove over to Champlain from Vermont for us to capture what life looks like on Glass Road. You can see her images in the gallery at the top of this story.
Read even more in our Eyes on Us series by Kayla Canne and Beryl Lipton.
— The Democrat and Chronicle is examining surveillance efforts in western New York as part of an investigative project called “Eyes on Us.” This year, we’re following issues at the U.S.-Canada border. Do you have questions about police surveillance technology or border security? Email Kayla Canne at kcanne@gannett.com, and we will try to answer them in an upcoming series of stories.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Under the watchful eye of the Border Patrol: See our images
Reporting by Kayla Canne, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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