New York City's police department is placing 500 surveillance cameras throughout the city, at a cost of $9 million, in an effort to prevent crime and terrorism. Hundreds more cams will follow if $81.5 million in requested federal grants comes through. The additional funds would be used to build a surveillance "ring of steel" designed after a similar system in London's financial district. And we all know how perfectly London's surveillance cam system has protected that city.
Link to AP item by Tom Hays, which includes the predictable line, "Police officials insist that law-abiding New Yorkers have nothing to fear because the cameras will be restricted to public areas." (Thanks, A.V.)
In related news, the NYPD may be snapping images of you, but don't try to snap back. From the Village Voice:
[P]olice evidently aren't so keen on surveillance when the cameras are turned on themparticularly when those cameras show them abusing free-street-parking privileges. On March 27, two volunteers from the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives were detained for taking pictures of police officers' private cars, which were parked on the sidewalk outside the Fifth Precinct in Chinatown. The volunteers say they were held and questioned at the precinct for about 20 minutes and instructed to erase the pictures.
"It was intimidating. I was afraid they were going to arrest me," says Brian Hoberman, 37, who works as a researcher for the city's Rent Guidelines Board.
Link to post on Declan McCullagh's politech list.
Reader comment: AV says,
Here's a website that tracks video camera abuses that have made the news: Link. Scroll down or search for the word "troopers" and note how traffic cameras can be tilted and panned and how they were used for non-traffic watching by state troopers: Link, and Link.
