NYPD seeks to expand surveillance cameras, license plate readers
Raw Story >> 01st April 2009
If New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has his way, surveillance cameras will blanket the entire midtown area of New York City.
Kelly says he intends to pattern the surveillance system after the “ring of steel” system now used in London. “That would mean the cameras and the license plate readers and coordinate it from the new coordination center located in lower Manhattan,” said Kelly. The system is intended as an “anti-terrorism” measure.
“The idea, Kelly testified before a City Council committee, is to allow police to do everything they do downtown – scan license plates, monitor surveillance video cameras and use radiation and bioterrorism detectors – between 34th and 59th streets, from river to river,” Newsday reports. The NYPD has already obtained most of the necessary $92 million but federal grant funds are needed to complete the project.
The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Police Department, questioning how citizens’ privacy will be balanced against security concerns.