NYPD's "Operation Sentinel" Will Photograph Every Car Coming to Manhattan

Photograph by Pro-Zak on Flickr

The NYPD is serious about security in this post-9/11 world, and, amongst many elements in a proposal called "Operation Sentinel,"is the plan to photograph every single car coming into NYC. The NY Times reports that the goal is to "strengthen the city’s guard against a potential terror attack." Vehicles would be photographed, license plates scanned, and checked for radioactivity.

Cameras would be set up at bridges and tunnels. The NYPD says that if a vehicle does not appear suspicious (after running it through a databased), the information will be deleted. Previously, the NYPD has mentioned its Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, which would ultimately have 3,000 cameras in place; now the NYPD has released details of how security would be tightened up around Ground Zero. Those plans include a dozen guard booths, specific areas where tour buses can drop off and pick up passengers, and a bomb screening center for service and delivery trucks to the World Trade Center.

There are some questions about whether this is too much. A doorman told 1010 WINS, "There's a balance that needs to be had, and that needs to be constantly upheld. How much safer is that really going to make us? We're getting closer and closer to a police state. How much are civil liberties going to be encroached upon in the name of quote-on-quote security?"

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By Jen Chung in News on August 12, 2008 12:21 PM

Comments [rss]

allie25

im a pothead hippie, and i have plenty of things to do, thank you very much!

JMH

While "quote-on-quote" is stupid "quote, security, unquote" is redundant. The correct usage is "security". Let those quotation marks do their jobs!
I'm guessing that the guy who was being interviewed actually SAID "quote-unquote" (or "quote-on-quote" if the guy used it wrong) so it had to be included in the transcription as well.

Stupid. Its just a camera taking a picture of your car!!!! thats it!!! If your not a terrorist you have nothing to worry about. Stop with the shit about "freedom" and "Privacy" Tell that to Google with their street view. Nothing is sacred.
In response to concerns about respecting people's privacy, Google has implemented blurring of faces and license plates and has accommodated most other privacy concerns that have been raised.

Anyway, I say bring on congestion pricing. Too many cars in this city.

BJKnief

the look stupid and are not gonna actaully create an impact wouldnt be surprised if they are just for show

Jerky

Good to know that all the really smart people work for the NYPD nowadays......

dadoc

"Radioactivity" check is also, at best, a tenuous benefit. The sensitivity of the sensor will be tricky at best. Is this going to pick up anyone who has had a Technitium stress test this AM (as had happened many times in the subways)? Is it going to flag a truck carrying granite or industrial pipe inspection equipment? You don't think any reasonably intelligent terrorist can construct an appropriate shield? It's a question of sensitivity/specificity risk/cost/yield analysis. Like I said, spending Fed "anti-terrorist" bucks to place revenue-generation equipment.

scott10130

You are all forgetting about the radioactivity check.

chuzzlewit

edit: perpetrators'

shit.

chuzzlewit

truck loaded with explosives drives into nyc is photographed by the robot camera then blows up in the middle of town with the bombers inside and the authorities rewind the tape and say "yup! there it is - we got a picture of the perpetrator's vehicle right here. it was a white van, god damn them"

plasticpants

Cameras focused on cars? I guess anyone wishing to do harm would never think to take a bus, train, or taxi into Manhattan.

NannyState

If the shit hits the fan, terrorists already know that cameras don't shoot back. As for the rest of us, check your mail: I have a feeling a lot of administrative fines are coming our way.

so1337

Stupid. Its just a camera taking a picture of your car!!!! thats it!!! If your not a terrorist you have nothing to worry about. Stop with the shit about "freedom" and "Privacy" Tell that to Google with their street view. Nothing is sacred.

Bubba

zodak & mocanlagunas, my typing is not so good. yes it is THX-1138

dadoc

And it's not a police state, it's a Tax/Revenue state. It's not about our privacy. It's about THEIR money, which doesn't get to us unless we're "Special Interest"

dadoc

Useless as a proactive defense against terrorist acts. Basically useless retrospectively. Uses: verify the crossings of a stolen vehicle. Catch a person/politician travelling to an affair. Mess with city/state employees who aren't where they're supposed to be & EZPASS doesn't work. Prepare to check viability of enforcing tolls on non-toll crossings, and use some Fed Anti-terror bucks that must be spent or lost. Gee, I wonder which one it is. I'd love to get a gov job and have them pick up my beer bill, as I go "deep", scouring the local bars/bodegas, looking to ID insurgents in the name of the "War on Terror".

JacqueMehoff

time to buy some microwave jammers.

or just shoot them out with a hi power air rifle,

pfffft, done and done. no muss no fuss.

quiet as a city street during rush hour.

S.D.

"Fucking leave if you don't LOVE the freedoms that we have here in this country. You clearly don't know how lucky you are."

(sigh)

A freedom like privacy, right?

This is nothing more than a silly PR attempt by the City to say "Look! Your Safer!!!" when in fact your not. At best, photographing cars entering the city will assist after the fact, nothing more. You'll NEVER have a scenario where someone says "Look!!!!! A Bad Man! Stop and Arrest him!!!"

It doesn't work in England as expected and it won't work here as expected either.

Shinobi Shaw

Alex Jones called it back in 2000! 8 years later and NY is becoming London part deux!

nicemarmot

It's too late. They've been doing this stuff for years now and hiding it from us. The best you can hope for is that they don't find a reason to go after you. Or space travel to colonize new planets, but that doesn't seem likely anytime soon. And until then we're stuck in this hellhole, watching every tiny privilege drain away until there's nothing left and we are slaves of our government. Back in the day people could immigrate to a new place if their circumstances were too awful. Now there's no place left to go.

jibbly

Don't tase me bro, indeed.

Using up precious resources for the illusion of safety and security takes away from actually implementing plans that create real safety and security.

This is getting real ugly, folks. Is it even possible at this point to completely gut the NYPD and do a bottom up restructuring?