They were the first installment of a program to place 500 cameras throughout the city at a cost of $9 million. Hundreds of additional cameras could follow if the city receives $81.5 million in federal grants it has requested to safeguard Lower Manhattan and parts of midtown with a surveillance “ring of steel” modeled after security measures in London's financial district.
Officials of the New York Police Department _ which considers itself at the forefront of counterterrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks _ claim the money would be well-spent, especially since the revelations that al-Qaida members once cased the New York Stock Exchange and other financial institutions.
NYPD Deploys First of 500 Security Cameras
Along a gritty stretch of street in Brooklyn, police this month quietly launched an ambitious plan to combat street crime and terrorism. But instead of cops on the beat, wireless video cameras peer down from lamp posts about 30 feet above the sidewalk.
They were the first installment of a program to place 500 cameras throughout the city at a cost of $9 million. Hundreds of additional cameras could follow if the city receives $81.5 million in federal grants it has requested to safeguard Lower Manhattan and parts of midtown with a surveillance “ring of steel” modeled after security measures in London’s financial district.
Officials of the New York Police Department _ which considers itself at the forefront of counterterrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks _ claim the money would be well-spent, especially since the revelations that al-Qaida members once cased the New York Stock Exchange and other financial institutions.
“We have every reason to believe New York remains in the cross-hairs, so we have to do what it takes to protect the city,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said last week at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
The city already has about 1,000 cameras in the subways, with 2,100 scheduled to be in place by 2008. An additional 3,100 cameras monitor city housing projects.
New York’s approach isn’t unique. Chicago spent roughly $5 million on a 2,000-camera system. Homeland Security officials in Washington plan to spend $9.8 million for surveillance cameras and sensors on a rail line near the Capitol. And Philadelphia has increasingly relied on video surveillance.
Privacy advocates say the NYPD’s camera plan needs more study and safeguards to preserve privacy and guard against abuses like racial profiling and voyeurism.
The department “is installing cameras first and asking questions later,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Police officials insist that law-abiding New Yorkers have nothing to fear because the cameras will be restricted to public areas. The police commissioner recently established a panel of four corporate defense lawyers to advise the department on surveillance policies.
“The police department must be flexible to meet an ever changing threat,” Kelly said. “We also have to ensure whatever measures we take are reasonable as the Constitution requires. That’s the only way to retain public support and preserve individual freedoms.”
Lieberman concedes cameras can help investigators identify suspects once a crime has been committed, but argues they can’t prevent crime. She cited a 2002 study which concluded that surveillance cameras used in 14 British cities had little or no impact on crime rates _ just as they didn’t keep terrorists from bombing the London subway system last year.
“The London experience shouldn’t be misconstrued that the ‘ring of steel’ prevents terrorism,” she said. “But that’s how it’s being pitched.”
Still, New York police were impressed that their British counterparts drew on 80,000 videotapes to identify and retrace the routes of the subway system suicide bombers and the suspects in a failed follow-up attack.
Timothy Horner, a specialist with the Kroll security firm and a former NYPD captain, said the measures make sense.
“It’s not a cure-all, and the department is not thinking that way,” he said. “But we really want law enforcement to use whatever tools they can to keep us safe.”
about time
MAZEL TOV!!
GREAT IDEA
tHEY SHOULD INSTALLL THESE CAMERAS ON KINGSTON AVE AND ALL OF CROWN HEIGHTS ESPECIALLY THE STREETS AND ALLEYWAYS FOR THE DANCING OF SIMCHAS BAIS HASHOYEYVA ON CHAL HAMOED SUCCUS. IT WILL HELP TZNIUS PROBLEMS IN OUR NEIGHBOORHOOD.
WHILE THEY ARE AT IT, SEVERAL AT 770 TO (INSIDE) AND OUT) THEN A EYE CAN BE KEPT ON THE THE TZFAS BOYS
Answer
Great idea u r a nut!
Maybe the camera’s would get better use on Albany and Troy to catch muggers, rapists and killers.
Get serious and stop wasting ur brain and imagination on stupid baseless hatred. ( In regards tznius, the pple who flaunt the laws of Tznius do this in public on Kingston Avenue so cameras won’t scare them. Education through ahavas yisroel is the only way.
girl
mazal tov!!!! i never thought they’d actually do it!
horray finally getting down to some buisness!!!
may they put up many more!!!!
Eli
Yeah, great idea. That is, until you get a speeding ticket in the mail, double parked tickets no longer need to have police presence, go prove that you were in the car… police may pull up to arrest bochurim that the cameras protray as fighting, who knows what else they could come up with? This isn’t what we need! We need some community members to get together, to put up our own surveillance cameras on every intersection, and have them monitored by Shomrim maybe that’ll get the necessary response in a timley manner when (and let it never be) needed.
mother in CH
‘Great idea’: keep the "IDEAS" to yourself..thanks :)
One should only look at themselves and see where they need work..
CHer
to eli, much better idea… our own cameras will serve their purpose to protect the community and NOT to give out stupid speeding tickets….i always had such an idea and now that it’s being done all over, why not do it ourselves? the police are not helping us, let’s work together and do it ourselves!
raizel k
mazel tov i think its great we have to do something about the tznius
jus- curious
to ANSWER: you write that education thru ahavas yisroel is the only way, why then would you say things like "you are a nut"?
Cares
Great Idea.
You are wrong. Many people choose to do wrong they make mistakes than realize their mistakes, security cameras wont help them. It will just embarrass them and they will never want to come back. So, they should be used for security thats what they are made for, not for spying, its kind of rude to spy on people. Don’t you think?
sam braun
where in brooklyn did they put it up?
Itzik_s
I see a camera not far from Klein’s grocery on Empire. What is that all about, or is it traffic radar?
o, c-mon
stop adding in things like tznius and parking tickets…
the police are putting up these cameras for our safety…let’s just say thank you, and stop rubbing in all of Ch’s other problems, i think this was great, and eventually, everything will be taken care of…step by step..
Wants action
To all you out there, cellebrating about the camra’s, do you know the real reason why thay put camra’s? To see who went by a red light, and over the speed limit. Do you think that the city cears about crime? Any body knows what happend with the murder with klien ib"m? Only tickets that’s what the city cears about, and mony.
Stop tickets are will stop it for you!
Watch out! There is a camra on eartern pkwy. And mew york, on the service lane closer to union st.
TO ANSWER
TRY HAVING A LITTLE SENCE OF HUMOR
hashfanatic
Eli and CHer…I’m curious…what gives you the right to put up any of your "own" cameras?
chaya
the cameras are a good idea and about the tznius,we all b”h have parents to tell us how too dress
hashfanatic
Sam, the cameras are on Knickerbocker.
GeorgeOrwell
There was a book that discussed this situation – it was titled "1984".
I don’t think this is a development to celebrate.