Vol. 71/No. 33 September 10, 2007
The $90 million project is scheduled to be installed by 2008 and fully functional by 2010. About 1,000 public and 2,000 private security cameras would be set up below Manhattans Canal Street, transmitting live information. It would include remote-controlled swinging barriers that cops could use to block traffic and trap a car.
There are already 4,200 surveillance cameras in place below 14th Street, a fivefold increase since 1998, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union.
About 200 cameras have already been placed in working-class neighborhoods labeled high-crime areas in New Yorks five boroughs.
City officials are seeking state approval to charge drivers a fee to enter Manhattan below 86th Street, which would require the use of license-plate readers, the New York Times reported. Although billed as an anticongestion plan, if it is approved the police will most likely collect information from those readers too, the paper reported.
Washington, D.C., already has a Joint Operations Command Center in police headquarters that can conduct surveillance through 14 video cameras in several downtown locations. Closed-circuit surveillance systems for the districts public schools and regional subway stations can be watched through the center.
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