From Declassified – New York Police Department is building a closed-circuit TV surveillance system which it hopes will eventually be more sophisticated and effective than the closed-circuit TV (CCTV) system used by police in London and other British cities.
The widespread use of CCTV monitoring in Britain has been touted by UK authorities as a critical tool for solving crimes and maintaining public order but has been criticized by civil libertarians as a Big Brother–like widespread invasion of personal privacy.
According to official estimates, in London, the Metropolitan Police (a.k.a. Scotland Yard) and its partners in the City of London Police, who patrol the “square mile London borough that hosts most of Britain’s financial industry, have access to video from roughly 500,000 cameras positioned all around the city. Officials estimate that in any one day, an ordinary citizen making a routine trip within London—to and from work, say—would be captured on video by 200 to 300 CCTV cameras.
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On the morning of September 11th, 2001 my fiance called me to tell me to turn on the TV because we were under attack. The first plane hit one of the towers at the World Trade Center and as I turned the TV on the second one hit. I was, like most Americans that morning, stunned and shocked at what I was watching, but I remember telling my fiance that “Honey, we are watching history being made and from this moment on our world is forever changed.” As a retired police officer, I knew the implications of what was happening and my mind was besieged with ‘what if’s’ and ‘who, what, and why’s?.’ So many questions were exploding in my mind as I’m sure every single person with a police, military, or first responder type of mind, had to have rushing through theirs at the same time that morning. Having cameras as a daily part of our lives is something that is unavoidable. We can accept them and use them for positive means and realize they can help us locate, possibly, a future terrorist “before” an attack is carried out. That is the best we can hope for. Islamic terrorism is not going to go away so we need to stop it before it can affect us directly. Along with the CCTV’s, people need to look around while they’re walking and talking, paying attention to everything and especially anything that looks unusual. If it looks unusual…it probably is. If you walk, or drive, the same route everyday and all of a sudden today something is different, ask yourself why?. It may not be important at all, but then again it may be VERY important. This is our safety, our loved one’s safety, our friend’s safety, and we need to all do our part. We do not need to be paranoid, just cautious, and we will all sleep a little better at night. God Bless America, our Military troops, and Police departments all over the country.