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Read the press release here.

'Ring of Steel' Wraps Big Apple Up in Surveillance Web

By DNAinfo Staff on September 21, 2010 10:36am

One of the 500 newly activated subway cameras sends a live-stream of a Times Square platform to the city's Security Coordination Center.
One of the 500 newly activated subway cameras sends a live-stream of a Times Square platform to the city's Security Coordination Center.
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DNAinfo/Olivia Scheck

By Olivia Scheck

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — A massive expansion of the city's security surveillance system went into effect on Monday, activating hundreds of subway cameras in Midtown transportation centers, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly announced.

The 500 new cameras are consolidated in Times Square, Penn Station and Grand Central Station, providing live feeds to the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center, the city said in a statement.

There are now 1,159 cameras, from the public and private sectors, being monitored by the center and that number will rise to approximately 3,000, according to the statement.

"These cameras are trained on turnstiles, platforms, tracks and the entrances to subway tunnels…We can zoom in on individual images and control the angle of cameras remotely from this location," Kelly said of the new surveillance devices, according to NY1.

License plate readers and radiation detection sensors, in addition to the 3,000 surveillance cameras, will be distributed throughout the city, covering "centers of finance, commerce and government, transportation hubs and iconic landmarks, including the World Trade Center," the statement noted.

"You can think of it as taking away freedoms," Mayor Bloomberg said, addressing privacy concerns, according to NY1. "But I prefer to look at it as this is what is guaranteeing our freedoms."

Footage collected by the city is "discarded" after 30 days unless it is being used in an investigation, the statement said.