The NYPD has launched its ambitious plan for a network of surveillance cameras to combat terrorism and detect suspicious behavior in lower and Midtown Manhattan, Commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday.
Speaking at the Association for a Better New York, Kelly detailed the initiative featuring cameras so sophisticated that they can zero in on an unattended briefcase or pinpoint suspects by their jacket color.The brain of the operation is housed in a lower Manhattan Central Coordination Center, which processes any perceived threats and can dispatch police to investigate. “We now have about 450 out of a planned network of 3,000 cameras feeding into our lower Manhattan security-coordination center,” Kelly said.
It is long over due. London has stopped several plots using this tool and NYC certainly can benefit from it too.