New Surveillance Cameras to Bolster Security in NYC

New NYPD surveillance cameras have been added to the Upper East Side to cover area not easily reached by patrol cars.

• By Sydny Shepard
• Oct 29, 2018

The New York Police Department has added new surveillance cameras to the Upper East Side where residents have complained about quality of life issues due to difficulty of getting patrol cars to the area. 

Three of the eight new cameras will provide coverage to an area that is difficult for police to reach by patrol car including FDR Drive, Andrew Haswell Green Park and most of the East River Esplanade from E. 63rd St. to E. 70th St. Rockefeller University, on York Ave., paid for two of the cameras, which are being installed at its new Stavros Niarchos Foundation-David Rockefeller River Campus building. The other camera will be put up at the Hospital for Special Surgery.

The remaining camera will provide eyes outside four subway stations where homeless people tend to congregate and have been accused of various quality of life infractions.  

City Councilman Ben Kalloas said the eight cameras will cost $336,000 and that reaction to the cameras has been largely positive.

"No one objected during participatory budgeting," Kallos said. "People want them."

The cameras will link to the NYPD's Domain Awareness System, the surveillance network of more than 18,000 interconnected cameras — including those in the private sector — as well as law enforcement databases. Currently there are about 2,626 cameras around New York City connected to the NYPD's network.