The Focus on Manhattan
Posted July 9th, 2007 by Marius Trusculescu
Inspired by London’s complex surveillance system, New York city officials think of developing a similar project for downtown Manhattan. More than 100 cameras will be ready to monitor the area by the end of this year and more than 3 000 (yeah three thousand) are intended to be installed if the project is fully financed. Momentarily 25 of the 90 billion US dollars were already made available.
The surveillance system will mainly be destined at monitoring all the cars moving in the targeted area making it easier to detect and track terrorist. New York officials also want to use the system for taxing purposes if an unpopular decision is approved. A 6$ a day will be collected for every car detected in the city so the new surveillance system will have a direct way of recovering the initial investment. The camera’s will be able to read the license plates of cars moving in downtown New York, while an army of police and security officers will monitor their movement from a new operations center. Suspect cars will be neutralized trough movable roadblocks according to the same project.
Privacy concerns are however rising from the project and activists are accusing Big Brother scenarios which are becoming reality with complex surveillance system that tend to conquer the main cities of the world.
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