N.Y.P.D. Will be Watching
New York is installing a surveillance system designed to capture terrorists that rivals the one used in London.
The city plans to install more than 100 live-transmission cameras by the end of the year and 2,900 more by the time the $90 million project is complete, the New York Times reports. Future funding, though, is still uncertain.
Software would alert police to suspicious behavior, such as a driver who repeatedly circles the same block or a person who leaves a bag unattended. The plan also envisions placing gates at pivotal intersections that could be closed to block traffic or a suspect’s car.
Christopher Dunn, a lawyer with the New York Civil Liberties Union, told the Times he is concerned about the project. “This program marks a whole new level of police monitoring of New Yorkers and is being done without any public input, outside oversight, or privacy protections for the hundreds of thousands of people who will end up in N.Y.P.D. computers,” he said.
