'Ring of steel' to protect NY

2010-05-04 21:18

New York - New York officials say they could stop attacks, like the attempted Times Square car bomb, by expanding a controversial surveillance system that is so sensitive it will pick up even suspicious behaviour.

New York is already a heavily policed city, with 35 000 officers and a counter-terrorism bureau - the first of its kind in the country - partnering the FBI.

But Saturday's failed bomb in the Times Square tourist hot spot has provided the authorities with a new argument for expanding a sometimes controversial security blanket of cameras, sensors and analytical software.

The system "will greatly enhance our ability and the ability of the police to detect suspicious activity in real time, and disrupt possible attacks", Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday.

Ring of steel

The high-tech system, modelled on the "ring of steel" in London's financial district, is already in service in lower Manhattan, where Wall Street and the World Trade Centre reconstruction site are located.

Headquartered at 55 Broadway, the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative goes far beyond the traditional hodgepodge of police cameras, such as the 82 devices installed around Times Square.

Instead, an integrated system maintains an unblinking eye, not just watching, but constantly collecting licence plate numbers and video of pedestrians and drivers, as well as detecting explosives and other weapons.

An important component of the programme is co-ordination between the police network and private businesses' cameras, something that has not been established in Times Square, causing detectives significant extra work.

Also, a separate, but similar programme called "Operation Sentinel" plans to log every vehicle entering Manhattan island by scanning their licence plates and checking for radiation.

Last October, Bloomberg announced plans to expand the lower Manhattan system into Midtown, including the Times Square area.

On Sunday, New York police chief Raymond Kelly reiterated the plan and used the occasion to press for more federal funding from Washington.

Real time

Kelly also gave details about the system, explaining how the aim is for "analytic software" allowing experts to make sense of raw information in real time.

For example, alarms would trigger when cameras noticed an unattended bag or a car circling a block too many times to be considered normal, Kelly said.

"This is a whole new area for us," he told Fox News. "We're very enthusiastic about it."

Bloomberg said the city has budgeted "more than $110m to expanding the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative and incorporating it with the Midtown Manhattan Security Initiative".

That large-scale, yet simultaneously detailed intelligence gathering clearly pays in some terrorism investigations.

Officials point out that acquiring the ingredients for a bomb or weapons exposes plotters to precisely the kind of surveillance New York is promoting.

Kelly noted on Fox News that Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi found it "very difficult to get explosives" for his plan to bomb the New York subway system.

A major piece of evidence against him was security camera footage of a shopping trip for chemicals in Colorado.

Similarly, although the Times Square bomber tried to disguise the car, it was still quickly traced, providing detectives with an important lead.

Violating privacy

But while law enforcement officials tout a brave new world of security, rights groups fear a "big brother" presence violating fundamental privacy.

The New York civil liberties union has sued the Department of Homeland Security in an attempt to extract more information about the Manhattan security system and to know how the information will be used, shared and stored.

The irony is that the lowest tech responses can sometimes best the most sophisticated gizmo.

The misfiring of a device hidden in the underpants of a Nigerian passenger and the quick reaction by others on the US-bound flight prevented potential tragedy in a December 25 attempted airliner attack.

And in Times Square, a vigilant street vendor and nearby beat cop - not a computer - raised the alert on the suspicious vehicle.

"Think about the street vendor. Think about the passengers on the flight on Christmas Day," said politician Pete Hoekstra.

"All of these people perhaps were the difference between a major disaster and actually what happened: a failed terrorist attack."

- SAPA