Perry's Ad Claiming Border Crime Down 60% Is Campaign Fiction

Overall crime is down about 1 percent in El Paso, Wiles said, but the department is struggling with increases in auto thefts, burglaries, robberies and assaults.

In Laredo, where some of the most violent crimes related to drug gangs have been reported just across the border, police department spokesman Juan Rivera said that department was not asked to participate in state efforts.

"We're having an average year" for local crime rates, he said. "We're not seeing anything out of the ordinary."

West Point national security and terrorism professor Margaret Stock said she was skeptical of any claims about programs reducing terrorist threats on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Tags: Texas, Perry, election, 2006