NEW YORK – Criminals in Brooklyn will no longer be able to dodge the eyes of the law. Public video surveillance has come to Brooklyn in the form of wireless video cameras posted on lampposts 30 feet above the sidewalk and monitored by the New York Police Department.
The cameras are the first part of a plan to install 500 public CCTV cameras throughout New York City at a cost of $9 million. The Associated Press says the camera program will expand greatly if the federal government grants New York $81.5 million request to created a video surveillance “ring of steel” around Lower Manhattan modeled after London’s CCTV system.
New York’s subway system is already being protected by 1,000 cameras with plans for another 1,100 cameras by 2008.