Should US cities try a London-style camera network?
New York plans to install a permanent, extensive system for lower Manhattan by year's end.
from the July 11, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
A government surveillance center
American cities, however, don't have extensive live networks tied to a central surveillance center like London's. New York's plan is the first to emulate it.
The first 115 cameras are expected to be operating by the end of the year. By 2010, as many as 3,000 cameras could be installed. One-third would be owned by the New York Police Department and the other two-thirds by private security agencies working with businesses. All the images would feed into a surveillance center staffed by both the NYPD and private security agents.
The system will be able to identify license plates and can alert police to unattended packages or vehicles that repeatedly circle the same block. Eventually, it will be tied to a series of movable roadblocks that can be activated, with the push of a button, from the NYPD's surveillance office.
Such systems make the environment "operationally more dangerous" for terrorists, says Brian Jenkins, a terrorism expert at the RAND Corp. "They make it more difficult for attackers, short of those who are willing to commit suicide. That reduces the number of attackers and reduces the number of bombs in the operation."
He cites differences between the 2004 Madrid and 2006 Mumbai (Bombay) train bombings and the 2005 London bombings. Attackers in Madrid and Mumbai, who were not suicide bombers, placed several bombs and killed more than 200 people in each attack. London's four suicide bombers had only the bombs on their backs and killed 52.
"Fifty-two deaths is still tragic, but it's better than 200," says Mr. Jenkins.
Cameras enabled police in London to identify the 2005 bombers quickly. In the attempted attacks in London on June 29, police used the cameras to track and identify the alleged culprits and arrest them.
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