NEW YORK (AP) – On a cloudless spring day, the NYPD helicopter soars over the city, its sights set on the Statue of Liberty. A dramatic close-up of Lady Liberty’s frozen gaze fills one of three flat-screen computer monitors mounted on a console. Hundreds of sightseers below are oblivious to the fact that a helicopter is peering down on them from a mile and a half away. “They don’t even know we’re here,” said crew chief John Diaz, speaking into a headset over the din of the aircraft’s engine. The helicopter’s unmarked paint job belies what’s inside: an arsenal of sophisticated surveillance and tracking equipment powerful enough to read license plates—or scan pedestrians’ faces—from high above the nation’s largest metropolis.
Police say the chopper’s sweeps of landmarks and other potential targets are invaluable in helping guard against another terrorist attack, providing a see-but-avoid-being-seen advantage against bad guys. “It looks like just another helicopter in the sky,” said Assistant Police Chief Charles Kammerdener, who oversees the department’s aviation unit. The NYPD also plans to spend tens of millions of dollars strengthening security in the lower Manhattan business district with a network of closed-circuit television cameras and license-plate readers posted at bridges, tunnels and other entry points. Police have also deployed hundreds of radiation monitors—some worn on belts like pagers, others mounted on cars and in helicopters—to detect dirty bombs. Police insist that law-abiding New Yorkers have nothing to fear.
“Obviously, we’re not looking into apartments,” Diaz said during a recent flight. “We don’t invade the privacy of individuals. We only want to observe anything that’s going on in public.” The helicopter’s powers of observation come from a high-powered robotic camera mounted on a turret projecting from its nose like a periscope. The camera has infrared night-vision capabilities and a satellite navigation system that allows police to automatically zoom in on a location by typing in the address on a computer keyboard. The surveillance system can beam live footage to police command centers or even to wireless hand-held devices.
This technology will be invaluable one day, in case anyone tries to escape, er terrorize New York. Now where did I put than tin foil?
Think what the next generations equivalent of Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz cabal will be like!
These new and countless tools of control, surveillance, and eavesdropping, along with laws and powers to detain, proscribe, silence and punish in areas of thought and activity where this was once not subject to such interference, is like loading a gun: we put the loaded gun in the hands of a benign (President Bush) and concerned government (Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz cabal) wishing to protect us from terrorism, illegal immigration and organised crime, then they pass the gun to the next generation of government, and they in turn to the next … and so unpredictably into the future, in the hope that things will always be such, and times such, and people such, that benignity can and will reign all the way, with the ordinary citizen still functionally free and secure throughout.
History teaches a painfully different lesson about such naive hopes. If one would try to protect oneself against things going wrong, do not create instruments that could all too easily go wrong in the wrong hands – and very, very wrong at that.
The terrorists have won.
Any tool can be used in any way that it is designed for. We only have their word that they aren’t using it illegally. We used to use Night vision cameras to film people having sex in the field, a couple of times we caught gays and and them discharged. Even though we weren’t suppose to use them to spy on other soldiers. People get bored on guard duty and do things they shouldn’t these technologies are easily abused. The 1st abused that comes to mind is a cop using it to spy on their spouse, then their friends, then anyone they have a grudge against.
well, isn’t this exactly like the show and movie “blue thunder”?
Blue Thunder?
J/P=?
I’m getting tired of this false sense of security that’s wasting our tax dollars. The truth is, if someone wants to kill a large number of people in NYC or any other city in America, they could do so very easily.
It is impossible to stop things like 9/11 from happening using technology. The French learned this lesson the hard way with their Maginot Line which failed miserably to keep the Germans out.
Stop building border fences, flying helicopters around cities, and putting up cameras everywhere. Fix the real problem, the people!
That’s not a black helicopter up there, it’s Batman!
All this high tech is nonsense. Last two bombs that went off in NYC (small bombs) were delivered by someone on a bicycle….LOL!! 😀
“Police insist that law-abiding New Yorkers have nothing to fear.”
Why do they feel the need to reassure us?
@11
Because it looks cool. This is a KA-50 russian counterpart of the American Apache, and it looks mean…Also they are always painted black.
I’ve always wondered why the Russians seem to use dual counter rotating rotor for combat designs whereas Americans don’t. The American Chinook is a tandem rotor.
Historically, the Russians usually go with designs that are more robust and better maintainability in the field. Designs with less reliance on skilled people or good support facilities.
Are dual counter rotating rotors more prone to failure?
Dual counter rotating rotors can travel faster (Retreating blade stall is Reduced, thereby higher speeds can be safely obtained) and they don’t need a tail rotor, which are prone to fail.
The safety aspects for coaxial, dual counter rotating rotor enables reduction and elimination of various hazards and are it’s strong points.
* Settling with power – Reduced
* Retreating blade stall – Reduced
* Medium frequency vibrations – Reduced
* High frequency vibrations – None
* Anti torque system failure – Eliminated
we get these “EW” choppers buzzing around my area in the spring/summer months alot.. (locate ferry point park,next to the whitestone bridge in the bronx, ny on google maps for a visual)
the park is a huge extinct landfill that people dump/burn stolen cars (for insurance or fun i imagine)(amongst other things) -it was to be turned into a golf course but i think the money dried up. now it seems home to an R.C. club..
-also, one of my clients, in prepping for a possible lawsuit vs the park for asthma reasons, found that my zip code (10456) has the highest instance of brain tumours in all of NY state. -i’ve verified this with several generational families in the area.. i wouldn’t doubt that the landfill has something to do with it.. (my speculation) -that’d kill a golf course pretty quick…unless major payola goes out along with mark/fallguy.)
nonetheless i often see black choppers buzzing by with an electronics package either on its belly or nose either straight down Shurz Ave or maybe 150ft out from the shoreline.
the night-time choppers seem to be more of the standard NYPD type (blue/white) with a camera ball on its belly or lower nose (Spotlight+FLIR package, no doubt) -these are the same choppers that were seen buzzing around WTC 1 and 2 moments before each collapsed… *shrug* -only *seen* one unmarked chopper at night here… i *hear* at least 3 types of choppers at night, two of which sound like heavy lift or sea-air rescue type.. the other is the standard NYPD/News chopper sound..
if i saw a chopper like the one pictured, me thinks i’d raise an eyebrow..
anyway…take it all with a grain of salt…everything is by design anyways…
-s
Sigh… One can hardly blame NY for doing this. No doubt they will be a target for a long time to come.
One word….SA-18