File #: Res 1228-2008    Version: * Name: Supporting the Bloomberg Administration’s Lower Manhattan Security Initiative and its expansion of New York City surveillance cameras.
Type: Resolution Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on Public Safety
On agenda: 1/30/2008
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution supporting the Bloomberg Administration’s Lower Manhattan Security Initiative and its expansion of New York City surveillance cameras.
Sponsors: Letitia James, James S. Oddo
Council Member Sponsors: 2

Res. No. 1228

 

Resolution supporting the Bloomberg Administration’s Lower Manhattan Security Initiative and its expansion of New York City surveillance cameras.

 

Council Members James and Oddo

 

                     Whereas, Closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, a ubiquitous feature of institutional security systems, generally consist of one or more small video cameras sending images to a receiving monitor for surveillance purposes; and

                     Whereas, Major U.S. cities, including Chicago and Baltimore, installed CCTV systems in targeted areas to monitor, deter, and reduce crime; and

Whereas, Cities that have implemented CCTV surveillance cameras have experienced a reduction in the percentage of crime committed in CCTV monitored areas; and

Whereas, According to the New York City Housing Authority, there are currently thirty-seven CCTV systems strategically placed in public housing facilities throughout the metropolitan area; and

Whereas, According to the New York Police Department, crime in public housing facilities have dramatically decreased since CCTV installations; and

                     Whereas, The area that houses London’s financial district, The City of London, implemented a security network consisting of thousands of CCTV cameras in 1993 called The Ring of Steel in an effort to combat Irish Republican Army terrorism; and

                     Whereas, The Ring of Steel was an essential tool in apprehending terrorists that bombed London’s Underground transit system in July 2005 killing 56 innocent people; and

                     Whereas, The City of London, is similar to Lower Manhattan in area size, the number of financial institutions that remain terrorist targets, and the average daily number of commuters; and

                     Whereas, The Bloomberg Administration plans to construct a new ninety million dollar CCTV surveillance initiative modeled on London’s Ring of Steel in Lower Manhattan called the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative; and

                     Whereas, According to Reuters, the initiative includes a plan to install three thousand public and private CCTV cameras as well as movable barricades in Lower Manhattan in an effort to detect, track, and deter terrorists; and

                     Whereas, Major terrorist targets of Lower Manhattan include the New York Stock Exchange, the Mercantile Stock Exchange, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the soon to be constructed Freedom Tower; and

                     Whereas, The 1.7 square miles of Lower Manhattan are arguably one of the most valuable and sensitive pieces of real estate in the world; and

Whereas, Implementing the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative will serve to secure and protect New York City from future acts of terrorism; now, therefore, be it

                     Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York supports the Bloomberg Administration’s Lower Manhattan Security Initiative and its expansion of New York City surveillance cameras.

 

 

 

WJH

LS #4258

1/17/08