Big Brother? More like Huge Brother.

[The Real Bingo]

Using the new system, investigators will be able to access information through live video feeds and could potentially see who left a suspicious package behind just moments later, Kelly said.

The system will also allow cops to get a reading on radioactive substances, and determine if it is naturally occurring, some kind of weapon or a harmless isotope used in medical treatments.

“We can track where a car associated with a murder suspect is currently located and where it’s been over the past several days, weeks or months,” Kelly said. “This is a system developed by police officers for police officers.”

The system will also check license plate numbers to a watch list and alert investigators if a match is detected and quickly pull up crime reports, arrests and warrants on a suspect.

Read more: NYPD unveils new $40 million super computer system that uses data from network of cameras, license plate readers and crime reports - NY Daily News

Don't you feel so much safer already?

And the best part:

The system, which cost somewhere between $30 and $40 million to develop, could also help pay for itself with the city expecting to earn 30% of the profits on Microsoft sales to other city’s and countries, Bloomberg said.

[Whir]

Neat. They have one of those on NCIS:LA.

[Theophylact]

That ain't nothin'. You could be living in the UK.

The UK is being watched by a network of 1.85m CCTV cameras, the vast majority of which are run by private companies, according to the only large-scale audit of surveillance cameras ever conducted.

The study, which involved police community support officers (PCSOs) physically counting virtually every camera in Cheshire, provides the first reliable estimate of how saturated with CCTV the UK has become.

Details of the research come in the week that a government consultation document proposed a voluntary code of practice for public CCTV systems, but left private cameras largely unregulated.

It has taken more than two years for Cheshire PCSOs to interview the owners of every premises in the county. During the ongoing project they counted 12,333 cameras, according to an account of the research published in the magazine CCTV Image.

The majority of these were inside premises, rather than facing the street, and only a relatively small number of Cheshire's cameras – 504 – were run by public authorities.

The data from Cheshire was then extrapolated to the UK, taking into account rural and urban differences. The addition of the number of publicly-owned CCTV, and cameras on transport networks, brought the total estimate to 1,853,681. This translates to one camera for every 32 UK citizens.

Cheshire's deputy chief constable, Graeme Gerrard, said the data undermined more sensational estimates, such as the widely-repeated but dubious claim that the average Briton passes under 300 cameras a day.

Another questionable estimate that received widespread coverage – including in Home Office literature – was of 4.2m cameras in the UK. The methodology behind this claim was also dubious as it derived from a 2002 study that extrapolated from the number of cameras spotted on two streets in Wandsworth in London.

"The figure of 1.85m is still a significant number of CCTV cameras," said Gerrard, the national lead on CCTV for the Association of Chief Police Officers. "I'm not saying for a minute that this doesn't mean that we don't have a lot of cameras."

He said he was particularly surprised when he came across other research, showing the London tube network was covered by as many as 11,000 cameras.

Gerrard, who co-wrote the research with his constabulary's mapping manager, Richard Thompson, said that without comparable research from elsewhere in the world, campaigners could not reliably claim that the UK is the "most watched" society in the world.

But he said he hoped the research would form the basis of a more informed debate. "It doesn't matter if it is 4.2m or 1.85m. There are still lots of cameras in the UK and there are still issues that we have to be conscious about in terms of how they are used."

Isabella Sankey, director of policy at the campaign group Liberty, echoed the wider concern. "Who cares if there is one camera or 10 on their street if that one camera is pointing into your living room.

"Concerns about CCTV are not a simple numbers game; what's required is proper legal regulation and proportionate use."

This story is a year and a half old. How many cameras were installed for Olympic security?

[The Real Bingo]

That is one thing I noticed while in London. Maybe because I've heard about it before, but regardless...the amount of surveillance is startling. The sheer amount of data being compiled leads me to believe the municipalities do not have enough manpower to sift through it all. However, with the new "auto spy" stuff that reads license plates and provides facial recognition, the snooping game is becoming easier and cheaper.

[Epidemic]

in that 1.85 million camera analysis are they including department store cameras which are not hooked to the government?

If they do include private cameras those are not part of big brother AFAIAC, Being able to retrieve video from the scene of a murder is a great thing. As long as the camera is not generally available to the government.

as for the licence plate reader and automatic facial recognition on government systems that is a little spooky.

[MTAtech]

From a legal side, when out in public one has no expectation of privacy. What these cameras also do is document police abuse, which I like.

[Epidemic]

From a legal side, when out in public one has no expectation of privacy. What these cameras also do is document police abuse, which I like.

Although that is a wonderful byproduct. I prefer it for the more pressing real world concern of documenting criminals. Not that police are angels and do not need monitoring... But There are millions of crimes annually and only fraction of them are police abuse.

It is like having a gun to protect against rogue government. Not terribly likely to happen to you but none the less it is a byproduct of having a gun for protection.

[pickel]

From a legal side. What these cameras also do is document police abuse, which I like.

Until the Cops delete the footage before it gets to the D.A.

[Taxmancometh]

Thsi is old news. I seen it a week ago on Fox.

[Gomer]

Google, Comcast, Facebook, Verizon, etc. all know more about your private life than the government could ever dream of.

[MTAtech]

Google, Comcast, Facebook, Verizon, etc. all know more about your private life than the government could ever dream of.

If they did to me, they'd be bored.