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N.Y. Transit System Upgrades Surveillance 8/23/05 |
New York — Over the next three years,
New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority will add
1,000 surveillance cameras and 3,000 motion sensors to its sprawling network of subways and commuter rail facilities as part of a $212-million (U.S.) security upgrade announced Tuesday with Lockheed Martin Corp.
The agreement marks the MTA's largest financial commitment to its counterterrorism program. Although the agency approved a $591-million security plan in 2002, it had spent only a fraction of that until the deal with
Lockheed Martin.
MTA Executive Director Katherine Lapp rejected suggestions that the announcement was tied to last month's terrorist attacks in the London Underground that killed 52 people, saying planning for the security upgrades has been going on for more than a year. An MTA spokesman said the entire system already has about 1,000 security cameras.
Ms. Lapp said that while the system will utilize existing technology, like
closed-circuit cameras, motion sensors and other devices to monitor activities at MTA sites, sophisticated computer software will be used to integrate the information and link it to new MTA police department mobile command centers.
The sensors and
security cameras will feature software that sets off alarms at the command centers when, for example, it detects that someone has left an unattended package on a subway platform.
Source: theglobeandmail.com |
