3,000 Cameras Could Dot Downtown

Under a new security initiative for Lower Manhattan, the New York Police Department would install 3,000 surveillance cameras below Canal Street by the end of 2008, about 100 of which would monitor vehicles driving downtown as early as this year, the New York Times reported last night on its Web site.

In London, a similar ring of cameras has been used to track suspects linked to last month's car bomb plots. The new security initiative, which is expected to cost $90 million, would also include moveable roadblocks that could swing out to stop traffic if a suspicious car was detected on the road, the Times reported.

If Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing proposal gains state approval this month, police would also use information collected from license plate readers used to charge drivers to enter Manhattan below 86th Street for security purposes, the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, told the Times in an interview.

The city still needs to round up $75 million of the $90 million price tag for the program through federal grants, the Times reported.