NYPD wants to expand anti-terror program to midtown
NYPD wants to duplicate in midtown the measures under way near Ground Zero; these measures will allow allow police to do everything they do downtown — scan license plates, monitor surveillance video cameras, and use radiation and bioterrorism detectors — between 34th and 59th streets, from river to river
The NYPD is asking for federal funding so it can duplicate in midtown the measures under way near Ground Zero to protect the city against terrorists, Police commissioner Ray Kelly said Tuesday. Rocco Parascandola reports that the idea, Kelly testified before a City Council committee, is to allow police to do everything they do downtown — scan license plates, monitor surveillance video cameras, and use radiation and bioterrorism detectors — between 34th and 59th streets, from river to river. “We want to take that model and replicate it, to the extent that we can, to midtown Manhattan,” Kelly said.
The bustling swath of Manhattan has what the New York Police Department considers a host of targets attractive to terrorists, among them the United Nations, the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
A second so-called Ring of Steel, modeled after London’s security template, would give the city the protection it needs, he said. “It will give us a comprehensive and real-time view of midtown, offering us the best possible coverage, while avoiding redundancies,” he said. “This initiative will leverage the same tools and technology we will be applying in our defense of lower Manhattan, including video analytics software and a network of radiation and bioterrorism detectors.”
It is anything but guaranteed at this point. The initiative will cost $58 million, and “maybe more,” Kelly told reporters afterward. The downtown improvements, Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, will ultimately cost $92 million. Thus far, he said, 30 of 100 planned license plate readers are up and running, and 300 of 3,000 planned surveillance cameras have been installed. Data from scanners and video feed into a downtown police nerve center. Information from the midtown initiative would feed into the same center.
The New York Civil Liberties Union called for a formal public review of the plan. The group last year challenged the NYPD’s refusal to disclose information privacy protections in the LMSI. The suit is pending, but the NYPD recently opened up its Web site to public comments about the LMSI.
