Privacy Prevails due to NYPD Budget Woes

In our last post, we mentioned the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative. Here are details on the Initiative from the always-helpful Wikipedia:

The New York City Police Department and private companies intend to install over 3,000 new security cameras in Lower Manhattan, as well as 100 license plate-reading devices which are intended to scan plates and compare the numbers with information in a database. Additionally, the activities the cameras are programmed to pick up on include the delivery of packages. Other features of the system include mobile roadblocks, which could swivel into the streets and block traffic, and radiation detectors.

According to police spokesman Paul J. Browne, the footage from the cameras would be monitored from a center staffed by police officers and private employees.

As I understand it, Lower Manhattan=everything below Canal Street.

Though the operation officially launched in November, things are off to a slow start due to a budget shortfall. From Newsday:

The Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, as it is called, is similar to the so-called Ring of Steel in London, where authorities use a network of cameras, security barriers and officers to guard against attacks by terrorists.

Kelly has warned for some time that budget woes would slow the department's plans to assign 800 cops downtown and to install 3,000 security cameras. About 300 cameras have thus far been installed.

Only 10 percent of the cameras in place. So privacy is still 90 percent intact?

According to an ABC-Washington Post poll [PDF] from 2007, almost three quarters of Americans support surveillance cameras to fight crime. Only one quarter were opposed, presumably for privacy reasons. There was an interesting breakdown for the respondents:

* Seniors are most apt to support the increased use of these cameras.

* Those under 30 are the most likely to oppose cameras.

* Republicans support cameras more than do Democrats.

* Women support cameras more than do men.

* Higher-educated people more than the less educated.

* Whites more than African-Americans.

Hmmmm. Do those who support cameras value privacy less... or trust the government more?

NYPD scales back ground zero security plan [Newsday]