The New York City government and Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled a massive new realtime surveillance and threat analysis system known as the “Domain Awareness System,” which will enable police and law enforcement to rapidly track and pull-up information about suspects, vehicles and suspicious packages recorded on security cameras throughout the city.
The system’s powers of observation are for now concentrated in some of the busiest parts of Manhattan, where “approximately 3,000 closed-circuit TV cameras,” are installed.
The cameras are located in two major regions: south of Canal Street, “from river to river,” and Midtown, “between 30th street and 60th street, from river to river,” according to a news release on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s website. However, the New York Police Department has “begun to expand camera coverage to in the boroughs outside of Manhattan,” according to the news release.
Microsoft and the New York Police Department jointly developed the system and the city will receive 30 percent gross revenues of Microsoft’s sale of the system to other governments and customers around the globe. Fast Company has more on the system’s origins.
