While you might hear horror stories about the Big Apple, with the rising rate of crime at every nook and cranny, breathe easy as news of the New York Police Department (NYPD) trickles down to us plebeians, informing us that the NYPD is currently working on building a web of surveillance throughout lower Manhattan. The project is extremely ambitious, with word that the final effort will see more than 3,000 public and private security cameras working in tandem to track terrorists as well as criminal suspects. In addition to that level of surveillance and security, around 116 license plate readers will be in place, ready to monitor cars moving through the area which consists of the city’s financial district – making it a prime target for terrorists.

Troublemakers will definitely have to be more careful now, as there are digital eyes watching their every step whether they know it or not. It seems that footage collected by the NYPD’s cameras will be stored, but not indefinitely. Once the 30-day period is over, it will be discarded or recorded over – a wise decision else they will be faced with a serious lack of storage, or even data storage location problems considering the magnitude of video captured over time. Rest assured that these cameras will be used to intercept threat(s) that are imminent, but won’t be used for more nefarious purposes such as collecting data indiscriminately on Joe Public.

There are currently nearly 4,200 public and private surveillance cameras located in downtown Manhattan, whereas other cities (including Chicago and Los Angeles) have taken steps to expand their use of public surveillance cameras for security reasons, and have come up with some rather positive results. They claim that the community loves these cameras as it makes them feel all the more safer when walking about. These cameras don’t come cheap though, costing up to $60,000 each and boast night vision capabilities and can be remote controlled to pan, tilt, zoom, and rotate.

Source: ABC News