Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.
Closed-circuit security cameras are already everywhere in New York City. I can count upwards of 30 of them between 8th Ave. at 16th St. and the elevator to my office building in the heart of Chelsea Market. But if the city officials have their way, more and more cameras will be on the way to spy on New Yorkers keep the city safer.
A few months ago, in March, I wrote about plans to install security cameras in the subways. While at the time, I was a bit opposed to that deal, I think that, if the cameras are used correctly, they can enhance the safety of late-night train rides and the general feelings of security on the subways. I’m not the only one.
Over in London this week, Mayor Bloomberg spoke a length about surveillance cameras in the city. London, a city with many more CCTV cameras than New York City, is an apt stage for Bloomberg’s talk. Much like New York will, London uses security cameras to enforce their own successful congestion fee, and Transport for London has equipped the Tube cars with cameras.
Looking to shore up support for more cameras in the city, Bloomberg opined on the roles of cameras in a post-9/11 world:
Bloomberg, holding talks with his London counterpart Ken Livingstone, said such measures as London’s “ring of steel” — a network of closed-circuit cameras that monitors the city center_ were a necessary protection in a dangerous world. “In this day and age, if you think that cameras aren’t watching you all the time, you are very naive,” Bloomberg told reporters at London’s City Hall.”
“We are under surveillance all the time” from cameras in shops and office buildings, “and in London they have multiple cameras on every bus and in every subway car,” he added. “The people of London not only support it, but if Ken Livingstone didn’t do it they would try to run him out of town on a rail. We live in a dangerous world, and people want to have security cameras.”
New Yorkers seem resigned to a city of security cameras. While many of Rudy Giuliani’s draconian police tactics came under fire during the 1990s and the NYPD’s responses to the RNC protests in 2004 were highly scrutinized, cameras have become a part of New York City life with nary a peep for civil rights advocates worried about government intrusion into private life.
Really, in the end, there are few if any downsides to lining subway cars with cameras. People will be less likely to harass or threaten passengers. They’ll be less likely to deface cars and seats. Maybe they’ll even be less likely to litter and seat hog (I can dream, right?). So as Bloomberg continues European adventure, we can only wonder what other ideas he’ll try to bring back to the states. Socialized medicine, anyone?
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