Inside NYPD Surveillance

New Yorkers are relieved by the plummeting crime rates in their city. Murder rates have dropped 80% over the past 15 years. Considerable progress, despite cuts in law enforcement spending. Some credit security technology, like Closed Circuit TV, which has been augmented with large computer databases created out of decades worth of previously-forgotten dusty old paper archives.

Some privacy advocates are concerned that citizens have paid for lower crime rates through increased surveillance and intrusions into their private lives. Reporter Ramon Goni has been keeping his own eye on the story for BBC’s Digital Planet.

(Photo by Frédéric Bisson via Flickr/Creative Commons)