NYC plans on keeping eye on every vehicle in town: Report

MANHATTAN, N.Y. — Any vehicle that enters Manhattan could soon be tracked by police, according to a report by the New York Times.

The proposal, dubbed Operation Sentinel, is an attempt to guard the Big Apple against terrorist attacks.

The city would use integrated layers of transportation technology as tools to photograph and scan vehicle licence plates and drivers. Infrared scanners and other ITS systems would detect the presence of radioactivity in vehicles as well.

Data on each vehicle entering the city limits would be sent to a command center where it would be indexed and stored for at least a month, police officials told the Times.

Any suspicious vehicle would be immediately investigated.

NYC Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has been urging decision makers to adopt a London-style surveillance system for the financial district that relies on license plate readers, movable roadblocks and thousands of security cameras.

At the same time, adds the Times, a federal Securing the Cities program is going forward. Police are creating links with law enforcement agencies within a 50-mile radius around the city.

That plan includes outfitting officers with radiation detectors to stop a nuclear or radiological threat as far from the target as possible.