Reply #63: 'Ring of Steel' coming to New York = network of thousands of surveillance cameras [View All]

[L. Coyote]

August 1, 2007
'Ring of Steel' coming to New York
By Manav Tanneeru
CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/08/01/nyc.surveillance/

(CNN) -- In 2005, about two weeks after 52 people in London were killed in bombings targeting the English city's mass transit system, terrorists decided to strike again......

About a day later, photographs of four suspects were broadcast on television. Their images had been captured on surveillance cameras near the sites of the attempted attacks.

The remarkable speed of that investigation was repeated in June this year when terrorists attempted to detonate two car bombs in London.....

Police officials credited the "Ring of Steel" -- a network of thousands of surveillance cameras that line London's intersections and neighborhoods -- for providing license plate numbers, suspects' image and other important clues in investigations.

New York City, ... will have a similar system in place by the decade's end if it gets the needed funding.

.... Civil liberties advocates say such systems are a threat to privacy rights and another step for a society creeping toward a constant state of surveillance.