NYC Police Chief: More Surveillance Cameras Coming, Privacy Is "Off The Table"

Now more than ever, people are becoming more worried about their privacy, specifically being monitored while out in the public. Whether it'd be commuting to work or going out with friends, people aren't too comfortable with the idea that there are people watching them. However, it's not going away anytime soon, according to NYC police chief Ray Kelly.

Kelly thinks there's no better time than right now to install more surveillance cameras around New York City, especially considering the recent events in Boston earlier this month — the two suspects responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings were identified with security cameras that were placed on Boston streets.

Kelly says that "the privacy issue has really been taken off the table," meaning that while people may be concerned about being monitored while out in public, it doesn't seem to be too much of a concern for Kelly. He says that the "genie is out of the bottle," and most people accept the fact that they're being watched in public, whether they like it or not.

The NYPD currently take advantage of "smart cameras" that are laid out in Lower Manhattan. The police department has been using these for almost a decade, and they're there to identify potential threats such as unattended bags left on sidewalks for an extended amount of time. When the cameras detect something suspicious, it sends out an alarm.

An unattended bag was the exact situation in the Boston Marathon bombings, and had these smart cameras been installed on Boston streets, the fiasco could have been avoided. That's Kelly's frame of mind, at least. In any case, we now live in a day and age where there's really no such thing as privacy out in the public, and once you leave your house, you're subject to surveillance cameras everywhere.

[via Reason]