In A ‘Fishbowl’: Vermont Border Towns Fight Feds’ Push For Surveillance Towers

Bryan Davis looks up at at temporary surveillance tower U.S. Customs and Border Protection put up in Derby Line last fall. (Peter Hirschfeld/VPR)

Federal officials won’t say yet whether they’ll give Vermonters more time to weigh in on a controversial plan to install surveillance towers on the Vermont-Canada border.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection wants to erect 199-foot “Remote Video Surveillance Systems” in five northern Vermont communities. Mike Niezgoda, a public affairs officer with the federal agency, says high-resolution cameras affixed to the tower tops will help agents detect illegal border entries.

“And this will streamline our agency’s capability to be able to effectively patrol,” Niezgoda said. “Especially up here on the northern border, where we don’t have as many agents as we do on the southwest border.”

Residents of the five towns in which CBP wants to install the towers — Derby Line, Highgate Center, North Troy, Richford and Franklin — have raised concerns about the impact on privacy and property values.

Read the rest of the story at VPR’s website.