Watching

Via TalkLeft, here's a report from the Washington Post, NYPD Deploys First of 500 Security Cameras:

. . . Hundreds of additional cameras could follow if the city receives $81.5 million in federal grants it has requested to safeguard Lower Manhattan and parts of midtown with a surveillance "ring of steel" modeled after security measures in London's financial district.

. . .

The city already has about 1,000 cameras in the subways, with 2,100 scheduled to be in place by 2008. An additional 3,100 cameras monitor city housing projects.

New York's approach isn't unique. Chicago spent roughly $5 million on a 2,000-camera system. Homeland Security officials in Washington plan to spend $9.8 million for surveillance cameras and sensors on a rail line near the Capitol. And Philadelphia has increasingly relied on video surveillance.

I'm very on the one hand, on the other hand about this one. I mean, it's just public places. It's not like they're listening to private calls or reading your internet searches without legal authority and in defiance of federal law.

Then again...