Federal grant money is largely intended for funding equipment purchases, technology upgrades and intelligence operations. Through the COPS Hiring Recovery Program, part of the federal stimulus package, the NYPD will hire 300 officers with federal money over the course of three years. “That’s a drop in the bucket,” said Vallone.
The NYPD did not respond to City Limits' request for further information on the location, funding or software used by the Argus cameras.
News of an expanded police video surveillance program did not go over well with the New York Civil Liberties Union, a longstanding opponent to the Ring of Steel and widespread closed-circuit TV monitoring. “The NYPD has been very successful in using legitimate concerns about terrorism to justify sweeping initiatives that have nothing to do with terrorism,” said Chris Dunn, the NYCLU’s associate legal director. “Commissioner Kelly has placed a particular emphasis on intelligence gathering, and unfortunately that is turning into a program of universal surveillance of law-abiding New Yorkers.” Dunn added that the expansion of the Ring of Steel to cover all of Manhattan without any apparent checks and balances was “a recipe for abuse.”
The NYCLU has filed a lawsuit against the NYPD over the department’s refusal to respond to a Freedom of Information Law request to release documents related to the Ring of Steel. Dunn said he also plans to file suit against the federal government over a Freedom of Information Act request for information about video surveillance in New York City, made due to the partial funding by the Department of Homeland Security.
Widespread questions remain about the efficacy of video cameras to combat street crime or terrorism. Numerous studies in the United States and Britain have demonstrated that cameras do not have a deterrent effect on violent street crime. Their after-the-fact investigative or prosecutorial efficacy is not always clear either: In one high-profile example, the suspect remains at large in the bombing of a U.S. Army recruiting center in Times Square last March, which was captured on video.
Prof. Eugene O’Donnell, a former NYPD officer who teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, is another skeptic of expanding video surveillance. “How much demonstrated value is there in some of these technologies?” O’Donnell said. “They’re very expensive and they shift resources as the department is shrinking.”
The NYPD’s reliance on federal money, O’Donnell believes, is skewing the NYPD’s priorities away from street policing. O’Donnell, who was a visiting professor at the Bramshill Police College in England, cites widespread misgivings about video surveillance amongst British law enforcement as a cautionary example for the NYPD.
“The rank-and-file officers [in Britain] have had great doubts,” said O’Donnell. "Especially with terrorism, it’s hard to tease out the value of these programs.”
