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Superbowl Means Time For Spy Cams, Hazmat Squads and Bomb-Sniffing Dogs

Posted by timothy on from the it-is-time-to-cheer-citizen dept.

Toe, The writes "The New York Police Department has quietly installed about 200 temporary surveillance cameras in midtown Manhattan to help spot trouble along 'Super Bowl Boulevard,' a 13-block street fair on Broadway that's expected to draw large crowds during the windup to the game. The temporary cameras for the Super Bowl festivities will supplement a system of thousands of permanent cameras covering midtown and Wall Street that the NYPD monitors from a command center in lower Manhattan. The department has pioneered analytical software that allows it to program the cameras to detect suspicious activity, such as a bag or other objects left in one place for a long time. Hazmat and bomb squads will be on standby. Others officers will patrol with bomb-sniffing dogs. Still more will watch from rooftops and from police helicopters. At a recent security briefing at the stadium, police chiefs and other officials said success will be measured in part by how well authorities conceal all the concern over potential threats." Now it's a proven tradition: Superbowl crowds are a good place to test people-watching gear.

40 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. "Temporary" by rolfwind · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Temporary until they decide they really like them.

    1. Re:"Temporary" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      There is no temporary. We have always been at war with The Terrorists.

    2. Re:"Temporary" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      With all the ridiculous security required for major events like the Superbowl, New Years eve in Times Square, marathons, Olympics, I'm starting to think that we are only a few years away from the day when spectators will no longer be allowed to attend. The events will be staged for television audiences only. The police will decided that having so many people all congregate in one place is just too high of a security threat.

    3. Re:"Temporary" by interkin3tic · · Score: 3, Interesting

      No, they're one upping Orwell and successfully framing it as a new thing. In airports they say "Due to heightened security..." implying security is higher than normal at airports despite the fact that it has been that way for a decade and will never decrease. The national security level system had lower levels of threats on it, but pretty clearly no one ever intended to tell the public they were finally safe and could stop funding the military industrial complex.

      With a conflict that has always been going on, people will accept it. But they'll be apathetic about it too, so you can get less money out of it.

  2. JUst Curious by rmdingler · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Since the location of each Superbowl is typically known years in advance,

    why would some terrorist have to set up the big fireworks anywhere near the day of the game?

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:JUst Curious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They wouldn't, and they haven't, because there are no terrorists. The police are fear mongering scum.

    2. Re:JUst Curious by DarkOx · · Score: 2

      Well the earlier you put something like that in place the greater the chance someone happens upon it before the main event so to speak.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    3. Re:JUst Curious by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 5, Informative

      Explosives, especially homemade explosives, degrade over time and with exposure to moisture and weather. So do control electronics, and organic poisons. The stability of C4 is the exception, rather than the rule. Documented cases of old mines and artillery going off at unexpected times are common in the aftermath of military conflicts around the world. Maintenance in buildings that large, occupied by the pubic on a frequent basis, absolutely require maintenance crews to do thorough inspections to avoid collections of far more mundane materials. Some of the relevant regulations can be found at http://www.fifa.com/mm/documen....

    4. Re:JUst Curious by LMariachi · · Score: 1

      You could acquire a concrete manufacturer and bake explosives into construction long ahead of time, like when a new football stadium is being built five years ago

    5. Re:JUst Curious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Bane, is that you?

    6. Re:JUst Curious by timeOday · · Score: 2

      On the news they showed Russian police near the Olympics pulling up man-hole covers to inspect the sewers. So they are mindful of that kind of thing.

    7. Re:JUst Curious by z0rt · · Score: 2

      Who he is doesn't matter. What matters is his plan.

  3. Temporarily, it's the Terrorists by rmdingler · · Score: 3, Insightful
    When that source of evil dries up,

    some other group will pop up to unite our hatred until our eyesight is clouded.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:Temporarily, it's the Terrorists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      We'll go back to pedophiles, or maybe communists or witches. Or better yet, we can go back to the 80's and be afraid of pedophile witch communes sacrificing children (which do not have to be proven to have ever existed in the first place) to Satan. Now those were the good ol' days; that was an irrational fear you could really get behind. Some of those people are still in prison - real prison, not that pussy Guantanamo crap - based solely on the testimony of preschoolers that were interrogated for 12+ hours at a time and fed leading questions. Just let it slip to the local pastor about how rock music was encoding messages backwards and *BLAM*, ten people arrested for accusations made by the congregation and convicted on confessions beaten out of them with phone books. Sure, we have waterboarding now, but it's just not the same. I want to see character assassination, not just regular assassination. If you don't break them before killing them, then where's the fun in that?

      Too bad that Janet Reno isn't in the Capitol anymore. It's a sign of the moral decay that the country is in since we stopped lynching the gays and blacks.

    2. Re: Temporarily, it's the Terrorists by alen · · Score: 2

      So who was it in the 80's hijacking planes and killing elderly Americans on Italian cruise ships?

    3. Re:Temporarily, it's the Terrorists by flyneye · · Score: 2

      Well, we don't hear "Disco Duck " on the radio anymore, perhaps someone has a nonexistant source of evil dryer.

      --
      *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
    4. Re:Temporarily, it's the Terrorists by Guest316 · · Score: 1

      No no no, the previous prez said it quite plainly. It's tourists who are the problem.

    5. Re: Temporarily, it's the Terrorists by supersat · · Score: 1

      Well, that explains things like US-VISIT and ESTA. The US government has become increasingly hostile to tourists.

    6. Re:Temporarily, it's the Terrorists by davester666 · · Score: 1

      It doesn't have to even go that far. We're already going after on-line avatars of dead people. We can keep that going forever.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  4. Rock and a hard place... by Jamlad · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In their defense they're caught between a rock and a hard place. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. So they're just covering their asses, like any employee. If they don't step up "security" they'll be lampooned for inaction and complacency, if they do install cameras and add extra patrols they get call "fear-mongers" and "fascists". But the professional cost of not adding extra security, particularly in light of an (highly unlikely) attack, is greater than if they don't.

    1. Re:Rock and a hard place... by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Funny

      . Damned if they do, damned if they don't. So they're just covering their asses, like any employee

      So, you are saying the road to hell is paved with covered asses?

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    2. Re:Rock and a hard place... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      In their defense they're caught between a rock and a hard place. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. So they're just covering their asses, like any employee.

      If they don't step up "security" they'll be lampooned for inaction and complacency, if they do install cameras and add extra patrols they get call "fear-mongers" and "fascists". But the professional cost of not adding extra security, particularly in light of an (highly unlikely) attack, is greater than if they don't.

      No, I'd say the crushing weight of an overly oppressive government hell-bent on taxing us to death with FUD (mixed in with a few lies to keep the hype going) is the true greater cost, considering what it feels like to be "free" these days.

      I fear no foreign faceless terrorist directly. I fear named, titled, domesticated ones far more.

  5. What I really want to know is who is paying by DarkOx · · Score: 2

    Are local tax payers footing the bill for the enhanced police presence? Is every America paying to have TSA goons and FBI thugs swarming about? Or are the NFL and TV broadcasters picking up at least some of the tab?

    --
    Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    1. Re:What I really want to know is who is paying by CanHasDIY · · Score: 1

      Well, as the NFL is classified as a not-for-profit business, I'm gonna go with one (or a combination) of the first two.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    2. Re:What I really want to know is who is paying by Seumas · · Score: 1

      Yes, tax payers cover the costs. And they are significant. New Jersey (where the superbowl isn't even happening) is spending something like $20m just to accommodate extra transportation for the super bowl. Nobody will give exact numbers, so they all just say that the revenue brought in from visitors during the super bowl should offset the cost to the taxpayers. I'm not sure how that works, since if *I* pay *my* taxes and *my* taxes cover the cost of the super bowl transportation, security, amenities, and so on and then some diner and hotel downtown rakes in money from the extra business... how that benefits me or compensates me as a tax-payer.

    3. Re:What I really want to know is who is paying by RoccamOccam · · Score: 2

      New Jersey (where the superbowl isn't even happening) is spending something like $20m just to accommodate extra transportation for the super bowl.

      Umm ... This year's Superbowl will be played in MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

  6. Welcome to your police state by FuzzNugget · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I mean, holy shit, when police are smothering every angle of a peaceful gathering just in case by default, that's when you know it.

    America has had it so good for so long that one act of mass violence happens and they lose their shit (not to mention their rights). There are other countries where such things have historically been the norm, yet haven't resorted to police state tactics.

    Has anyone up there even stopped for a moment to think that, just maybe, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy? That all the rights-abridging, war-mongering, imperialistic atrocities committed by America's for-the-government-by-the-government system in the name of "spreading democracy" (AHAHAHAHAHAHA...) is causing certain people to react in such an extreme manner? Or am I being too naive in thinking that they haven't considered this and decided they want it this way?

    1. Re:Welcome to your police state by Seumas · · Score: 2

      And the 100,000+ at the event will gladly accept it, because "better safe than sorry" and "you gotta give up a little freedom and convenience for security durp durp".

      Even if that were true... all these resources to protect so many of the most disposable.

    2. Re:Welcome to your police state by DerekLyons · · Score: 1, Funny

      America has had it so good for so long that one act of mass violence happens

      Oklahoma City, Boston, Aurora.... One act? I just counted three, and I'm not even halfway through my first cup of coffee.
       

      Or am I being too naive in thinking that they haven't considered this and decided they want it this way?

      No, you just need to adjust your tinfoil chapeau, it's a little tight and the resulting lack of bloodflow to the brain is causing hallucinations.

  7. Well of course. They have to make sure that by Ellis+D.+Tripp · · Score: 3, Funny

    the fans coming in from Washington and Colorado didn't bring any weed with them....

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    Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
  8. A "superbowl" is what gets packed by Ellis+D.+Tripp · · Score: 2

    when the 2 states that recently legalized weed meet for a championship football game...

    --
    Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
  9. That's what allowing muslims free reign brings you by Chrisq · · Score: 1

    They are "free" to terrorise with their human rights protected and sod everyone else

  10. Superbowl? You mean the "Big Game"? by nolife · · Score: 2

    You can't use the word Superbowl or even Super Sunday without the NFL wanting some money. People have been calling it the the "Big Game", although the NFL is now trying to trademark that term as well.
    http://www.techdirt.com/articl...

    Unless you pay the NFL money, if the NFL has their way, we might have to call it
    "that game that happens at the end of the season that determines the champion in the sport that uses the brown oblong ball in the US"

    --
    Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
  11. Fuck American Football by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Fuck this shit it's not real football, just a bunch of homos touching each others asses and stopping every ten seconds to catch their breath because they are pussies.

  12. Re:Superbowl is Bread And Circus Day by reboot246 · · Score: 1

    Exactly!

    Welfare = bread
    College and pro sports = circuses

    Before much longer everyone in the country will be in the "low information voter" category. Idiocracy wasn't just a funny movie; it was a documentary about our future. Is there time to change course? No, we passed that point several decades ago. The best one can do now is ride out the bad times and hope for better times after all the shit is over.

  13. Re:Superbowl? You mean the "Big Game"? by turp182 · · Score: 1

    Just call it the Handegg Bowl.

    http://www.augmentedplanet.com...

    --
    BlameBillCosby.com
  14. Yawn by Animats · · Score: 1

    The Super Bowl was at Stanford once, in 1985. The local attitude was "yawn". Nobody cared. I was on the Stanford campus at the time, but on the other side of campus at the time, and it had zero impact over there.

  15. Re:Superbowl? You mean the "Big Game"? by TheSeatOfMyPants · · Score: 1

    Shouldn't the use of "The Big Game" by Cal & Stanford for *their* football game since 1900 interfere with that?

    --
    Now mostly at Usenet:comp.misc & SoylentNews.org (it's made of people!)
  16. Re:That's what allowing muslims free reign brings by Chrisq · · Score: 1

    I can't decide which is more disgusting: your blatant bigotry or your improper use of the word 'reign'. You should be ashamed of yourself, and I'm sure you would be if you were capable of it.

    I apologies for the misuse of "reign", and thanks I did not realise that "free rein" and "free reign" have different meanings. On the other matter if you consider it bigoted to point out that a group who are obliged to convert or subdue and use terrorist activities are to blame for increased security - then I'm glad that you weren't in government during WWII.

  17. Advance notice by linuxsurfer · · Score: 1

    It's a good thing we put this information on a public website. That way anybody who wants to cause havoc knows what systems to bypass.