Mayor Bloomberg’s little police state is coming along quite nicely, as the city plans license plate reader cameras “in every lane of traffic on all of the bridges and tunnels that serve as entrances and exits to Manhattan.” Oh and they also want to add unmanned drones to keep an eye on the plebes. Don’t even think about trying to sneak a 64 oz soda into NYC, Big Brother Bloomie is watching you!
From the Huffington Post:
NEW YORK — The ring of steel is expanding. New York City Police Department Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly announced a “major project” at a budget hearing on Tuesday to install license plate reader cameras “in every lane of traffic on all of the bridges and tunnels that serve as entrances and exits to Manhattan.”
Soon, no one will be able to drive onto or off of the island without potentially being recorded.
Kelly also said the department has mounted a high-resolution camera on an NYPD helicopter and given it “sophisticated down-link technology to provide real-time, high-quality video of incidents as they unfold.” The commissioner has expressed interest in flying unmanned drones to watch over demonstrations as well.
Kelly did not state the cost of the license plate reader program. But along with data from other major NYPD electronic surveillance initiatives — the Argus cameras mounted on streets in neighborhoods and the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative that integrates private cameras from banks and other institutions — the license plate data will be fed into a $30-40 million comprehensive dashboard produced by Microsoft called the Domain Awareness System.
Last month, The New York Times reported that the police department had built a database of 16 million license plates.
Department policy states that license plate data can be stored for at least five years. The department did not respond to a request from the Huffington Post on the civil liberties protections in place.
Of course they didn’t. The last thing Bloomberg and Kelly are thinking about are residents’ civil liberties.
Full article here.
In Liberty,
Mike
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Hasn’t it been this way in London for years? Cameras everywhere tracking cars and their plates.
1984 will really exist in the usa
I think Snake Plisskin needs to pay Bloomie a visit…
I went to 911 memorial this week. They scan the entry coupon about 6 times, and explicitly took my picture with that scan twice. Along with airport style entry security and bazillions of cameras everywhere else.