NYC Adding 500 Cameras, Want to Track People, Cars.

New York Daily News ^ | March 22, 2006 | ALISON GENDAR and MICHAEL SAUL

[af_vet_rr]

New Yorkers, get ready for your closeup.

The NYPD is installing 505 surveillance cameras around the city - and pushing to safeguard lower Manhattan with a "ring of steel" that could track hundreds of thousands of people and cars a day, authorities revealed yesterday.
..
The NYPD also has applied for $81.5 million in federal aid to install surveillance cameras, computerized license plate readers and vehicle barriers around lower Manhattan, Kelly said.
..
But don't expect the NYPD to install its cameras without battling the New York Civil Liberties Union. The watchdog group's associate legal director, Chris Dunn, questioned the plan.

"Commissioner Kelly may be ready to launch us all into a surveillance society, but we believe cameras are not a cure-all for crime and terrorism," Dunn said. "It is far from clear that cameras deter crime."

[af_vet_rr]

How long before your small towns want to start acting like the big boys and add something similar, to go along with their SWAT-team outfitted Barney Fifes? (Of course some small towns in Florida are already going the surveillance route, which makes me wonder why the people there accept it).

I don't even want to think what NYC will be like 20 years from now.

[Brilliant]

We should be doing this a LOT more. Remember when the Brits were bombed, and they ID'd the suspects within minutes, and arrested the accomplices? We'd have no idea who did it, if that happened here.

It would also reduce general crime.

[JamesP81]

Big Brother, your home is in the Big Apple.

[MineralMan]

"We should be doing this a LOT more. Remember when the Brits were bombed, and they ID'd the suspects within minutes, and arrested the accomplices? We'd have no idea who did it, if that happened here.

It would also reduce general crime.

"

I think you're going to find, shortly, that most people on Free Republic don't much like the idea of Big Brother watching our every movement.

[G.Mason]

Perhaps the citizens need an organization of retirees', armed with video cameras, following elected officials, police officers, city and county workers, etc. etc. around the clock and see exactly we, John / Jane Q public, are getting for their tax money.

[ladyjane]

Most people on FR may not like it but then they don't work in lower Manhattan.

[ContemptofCourt]

We should be doing this a LOT more. Remember when the Brits were bombed, and they ID'd the suspects within minutes, and arrested the accomplices? We'd have no idea who did it, if that happened here.

It would also reduce general crime.

Perhaps we should also ban guns? How about having document checks at every street corner so we can ferret out the illegals?

I just fail to understand "conservatives" that are so willing to trust big government under the guise of "safety".

[vrwc0915]

bahh bahh black sheep have you any wool

[af_vet_rr]

We should be doing this a LOT more. Remember when the Brits were bombed, and they ID'd the suspects within minutes, and arrested the accomplices? We'd have no idea who did it, if that happened here.

I'm not a big fan of government tracking its subjects, err citizens, nor do I react very well to the government using terrorism to justify this or that.

[Alberta's Child]

If constant surveillance of this sort is absolutely necessary for the safety of people living and working in lower Manhattan, then lower Manhattan should be vacated in its entirety and turned into a park.

[CurlyDave]

safeguard lower Manhattan with a "ring of steel"

"Ring of steel" -- my hairy purple donkey.

It is a ring of mush. Good only for possibly finding the perps after they have committed the crime.

If they want a "ring of steel" they need to allow concealed carry. I have no fear of armed bankers and stockbrokers walking the streets of Manhattan, but the thugs and muggers certainly do.

Taking pictures of the license plates of stolen and rented cars will never prevent terrorism or crime.

[jdm]

"Most people on FR may not like it but then they don't work in lower Manhattan."

I was in Lower Manhattan once and some guy was walking down the street backwards and whistling at people. What the hell?! Kind of looked like this guy:

[Seruzawa]

An easier solution to the problems of crime in lower Manhattan is to move to someplace else. Like Utah. I moved here 24 years ago and have never regretted it for one second. I'm very happy with a substantially lower income. I can shoot, hunt, ski, camp, fish, carry a concealed weapon with the greatest of ease and especially nice is the fact that the legislature only meets for 45 days once a year.

[seoul62]

That freak show picture made me almost barf up my breakfast....Triple hurl........../seoul62

[meyer]

We already have a bunch of them in Chattanooga, TN. Yes, little Chattanooga. Seems that the JBT's can't wait to get them either.

Of course, none of the cameras has stopped the recent bunch of car break-ins and such in downtown.

[Brilliant]

When you're in public, there is no privacy.

[Brilliant]

It's not like they are looking in your windows. When you walk down the street, you are subject to being observed or filmed by anyone. Why shouldn't the government monitor public areas where crime is prevalent? The primary job of government is to maintain security.

[elkfersupper]

We should be doing this a LOT more.

I hope you're kidding.

[durasell]

I suggest that you move out of your $6 million downtown condo immediately.

[Brilliant]

Nope, I'm not. No one has given me a good reason yet why government should not monitor high crime public areas. Just that they don't like it. That isn't a reason.