This is the latest phase in New York City’s evolution into one of the most heavily-monitored cities in the world. Past estimates of the number of private and public video cameras range up to 40,000 – only London and the Chinese city of Shenzen have more electronic eyes watching public streets.
At the NYPD's budget hearing before City Council on May 19, Kelly made reference to the “Manhattan Security Initiative” in response to questions from hearing co-chair Peter Vallone, Jr. of Queens about federal funding for cameras. After the hearing, Kelly declared himself a proponent of video surveillance and made clear his desire to expand camera coverage throughout Manhattan. “We definitely want cameras throughout the city,” he said.
The NYPD has applied for $75 million in federal funds from the Homeland Security Grant Program. Of that, $21 million is intended for the Midtown Manhattan Security Initiative, a network of integrated video cameras that would monitor the entire area from 34th to 59th Streets, river to river. Another $3.7 million in grant money would be used to purchase 500 more cameras for the NYPD’s Argus system of wireless cameras.
The Argus name comes from Greek mythology, referring to a giant with a hundred eyes. According to Kelly, the 500 new Argus cameras will be deployed throughout the city’s eight borough commands, including the area to be covered by the Midtown Manhattan Security Initiative.
However, these cameras and the Midtown program are wholly dependent on federal funding. “We need federal funds to go ahead with the Manhattan Security Initiative,” said Kelly. “If we don’t get it, we’d have to defer [the project].”
This most recent expansion of NYPD video surveillance comes at a time when the department is losing personnel through attrition and does not have funds to hire replacement officers. At the end of this month, the NYPD will have 35,571 officers, a number expected to decrease to 34,304 by June 2010. As a result of the city’s estimated budget gap of $1.1 billion, the department has canceled the January 2010 academy class, postponed the construction of four new precincts and the new police academy in Queens until 2013, and slashed its overtime budget for FY 2010 by $21 million, to $379 million.
Increasing the NYPD’s reliance on technology while reducing the overall size of the police force is not the ideal situation, says Councilman Vallone, who chairs the Public Safety Committee. “Police officers are always more important than technology,” he said “You can’t rely too heavily on one or the other – there’s no substitute for boots on the ground.”
Vallone supports video cameras as both a crimefighting and counterrorism tool, and fully supports the expansion of the Ring of Steel to all of Manhattan. Due to budget problems, however, Vallone warned that some of Kelly’s initiatives, such as the Argus cameras, might be on the chopping block because of the city’s deepening budget crisis.
