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http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/01/nycs-subway-spy.html
NYC's Subway Spycam Network Stuck in the Station
By Noah Shachtman EmailJanuary 24, 2008 | 8:59:00 AMCategories: Homeland Security, You can run...
New York City's plan to secure its subways with a next-generation surveillance network is getting more expensive by the second, and slipping further and further behind schedule.
A new report by the New York State Comptroller's office reveals that "the cost of the electronic security program has grown from $265 million to $450 million, an increase of $185 million or 70 percent." An August 2008 deadline has been pushed back to December 2009, and further delays may be just ahead.
Shortly after a series of bombings in the London Tube, The Metropolitan Transit Authority, which oversees New York's mass transit systems, signed a contract in 2005 with defense contractor Lockheed Martin to put in thousands of security cameras, electronic tripwires, and digitally-controlled gates into New York's sprawling network of subways. The deal was inked just a few months after MTA chairman Peter Kalikow argued against "wasting money on unproven technology."
At the heart of the program was a network of surveillance cameras, passing what they saw through a set of intelligent video algorithms, designed to spot suspicious behavior: a bag left on the subway platform, a person jumping down to the tracks, a mob running up a down escalator.
But after several years of planning and tests, at least "one particular element" of the intelligent video system -- unspecified by the Comptroller's office -- "could not be advanced at this time due to
difficulties tailoring the software to conditions in the MTA environment. The MTA provided
extensive briefings to the media on the electronic security program in August 2005, shortly after the
London bombings, creating expectations for this program that now may not be fulfilled."
I've spent the last few months, on and off, reporting on New York's counter-terror programs for the magazine. One major problem with the subway surveillance program has been wedging a modern security network into a 5,000 square-mile system that recently celebrated its hundredth birthday. Getting the power – and air-conditioning – needed for the cameras' servers has been a nightmare. In many stations, there's literally no place to put the things. Plus, the ceilings in most of the subway stations are only nine feet high, and there are columns every few yards. Which makes it very hard to get a good look at the passengers.
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/01/nycs-subway-spy.html
NYC's Subway Spycam Network Stuck in the Station
By Noah Shachtman EmailJanuary 24, 2008 | 8:59:00 AMCategories: Homeland Security, You can run...
New York City's plan to secure its subways with a next-generation surveillance network is getting more expensive by the second, and slipping further and further behind schedule.
A new report by the New York State Comptroller's office reveals that "the cost of the electronic security program has grown from $265 million to $450 million, an increase of $185 million or 70 percent." An August 2008 deadline has been pushed back to December 2009, and further delays may be just ahead.
Shortly after a series of bombings in the London Tube, The Metropolitan Transit Authority, which oversees New York's mass transit systems, signed a contract in 2005 with defense contractor Lockheed Martin to put in thousands of security cameras, electronic tripwires, and digitally-controlled gates into New York's sprawling network of subways. The deal was inked just a few months after MTA chairman Peter Kalikow argued against "wasting money on unproven technology."
At the heart of the program was a network of surveillance cameras, passing what they saw through a set of intelligent video algorithms, designed to spot suspicious behavior: a bag left on the subway platform, a person jumping down to the tracks, a mob running up a down escalator.
But after several years of planning and tests, at least "one particular element" of the intelligent video system -- unspecified by the Comptroller's office -- "could not be advanced at this time due to
difficulties tailoring the software to conditions in the MTA environment. The MTA provided
extensive briefings to the media on the electronic security program in August 2005, shortly after the
London bombings, creating expectations for this program that now may not be fulfilled."
I've spent the last few months, on and off, reporting on New York's counter-terror programs for the magazine. One major problem with the subway surveillance program has been wedging a modern security network into a 5,000 square-mile system that recently celebrated its hundredth birthday. Getting the power – and air-conditioning – needed for the cameras' servers has been a nightmare. In many stations, there's literally no place to put the things. Plus, the ceilings in most of the subway stations are only nine feet high, and there are columns every few yards. Which makes it very hard to get a good look at the passengers.
