Planet Money
00:12:18 · Joe Pascarella, Amanda Aronczyk, S5
[00:12:18] S4: Lots. Billions. Billions. Just all all kinds of federal resources for counterterrorism. So we built out a lot in personnel, a lot of equipment, a lot of technology. [00:12:29] S2: With all of this money pouring in, the NYPD had the resources to, you know, send its own detectives to other countries, expand a joint terrorism task force to work more closely with federal agencies, to hire a former CIA guide to lead intelligence, and to amass all kinds of new technology to help the police see and hear and learn about anything bad that might happen in New York. At first, the aim of all this is to prevent a truck bomb or bioweapon attack by spotting a suspicious license plate or maybe an unattended backpack. But then the mission started to creep, both figuratively and geographically. [00:13:10] S4: So, you know, you could put [00:13:11] S5: up a [00:13:11] S4: camera. It's... You know, we used to call it a double bang for your buck. You put up a camera to try to stop terrorism, and you're also, you know, you have enough surveillance for, you know, local disorder and crime problems.
00:13:11 · Joe Pascarella, Amanda Aronczyk
[00:13:11] S4: camera. It's... You know, we used to call it a double bang for your buck. You put up a camera to try to stop terrorism, and you're also, you know, you have enough surveillance for, you know, local disorder and crime problems. [00:13:22] S2: Double bang for your buck. Looking for terrorists might also be able to catch a burglar. So now to do both, they've got the federal money pouring in, plus all of this private and corporate money going to groups like the nonprofit police foundations. After nine eleven, there was a surge in donations to these kinds of groups across the country. In New York, the NYPD begins to build what will arguably become the most advanced high-tech surveillance and intelligence platform in the country. It starts with gathering what they know into one place. So this means, like, databases and criminal records and nine one one calls, a ton of data. Then they centralize all that info into a twenty four hour a day, seven day a week real time crime center, which launched in 2005. So say a detective was investigating a serious shooting, they could call [00:14:20] S4: Call up, are there any cameras in the areas? You know, I have this license plate. Can you run this against the database? As opposed to going back to the detective squad officers getting on the computer. So it it evolved into a very, very, important help center to try to solve crimes.
00:14:20 · Joe Pascarella, Amanda Aronczyk, S6
[00:14:20] S4: Call up, are there any cameras in the areas? You know, I have this license plate. Can you run this against the database? As opposed to going back to the detective squad officers getting on the computer. So it it evolved into a very, very, important help center to try to solve crimes. [00:14:35] S2: The NYPD also started to build a way to watch the city, a network of cameras, license plate readers, radiation detectors. In 2008, they launched the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative. And here, the city did something quite savvy. It was expensive to buy and put up cameras everywhere. And lo and behold, a lot of the private businesses and buildings near Wall Street already had cameras set up. So the NYPD goes to these businesses and is like, hey. What if you sent your video feed directly to us? You know, share your cameras. And lots of places agree to this, like the New York Stock Exchange, Goldman Sachs. And eventually, this becomes so normalized that the NYPD even creates an explainer video about how, like, the bodega or, I don't know, Grey's Papaya could share their video too with the NYPD. [00:15:30] S6: By enrolling in Connect New York, you could play a crucial role in enhancing public safety and enabling swifter responses to incidents. [00:15:39] S2: Today, Connect New York is just one of multiple programs for sharing video with the NYPD. [00:15:44] S6: You could opt to provide live access to your camera feeds, or you can register your camera locations for easy reference when assistance is needed.
00:15:44 · S6, Amanda Aronczyk, Michael Bloomberg
[00:15:44] S6: You could opt to provide live access to your camera feeds, or you can register your camera locations for easy reference when assistance is needed. [00:15:54] S2: In the years that followed the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, the video network extended all across the city, and eventually, this public private model of shared camera networks becomes a model for other cities across the country. And then the NYPD has its biggest, boldest idea yet. What if we mix the chocolate with the peanut butter? We've got all this data. We also have this enormous network of cameras. What if we put it all together into a massive centralized platform? They bring in Microsoft to help. Just so you know, Microsoft is a sponsor of NPR. The NYPD then spends the next four years developing a platform with a military inspired name. [00:16:38] S7: Today, we're announcing the full launch of the domain awareness system. [00:16:43] S2: In 2012, former mayor Michael Bloomberg formally launched the domain awareness system from a secure command center. He is flanked by cops and surrounded by live video monitors. It's really giving Batcave. [00:16:56] S7: We're not your mom and pops police department anymore. We are in the next century. We are leading the pack. That's exactly what you would expect us to do.
00:16:56 · Michael Bloomberg, Amanda Aronczyk, Jessica Tisch
[00:16:56] S7: We're not your mom and pops police department anymore. We are in the next century. We are leading the pack. That's exactly what you would expect us to do. [00:17:07] S2: He wrapped up in Bloomberg Spanish. Anyway, the domain awareness system is a big part of why I had the experience I had on grand jury duty. Why grand juries today can watch videos from all over the city, from all kinds of cameras all edited together, and why the police can connect videos to people using license plate readers and geolocation. All that red string tying the story together, leading to names and ultimately arrests. Four years later, in 2016, the NYPD was a finalist for an international award for the domain awareness system. And at the award ceremony, a deputy commissioner, now commissioner, Jessica Tisch, she reveals the scale of what the domain awareness system can do and the extent of its reach. [00:18:02] S8: We currently have 2,000,000,000 license plate reads, a 100,000,000 summonses, fifty four million nine one one calls, 15,000,000 complaints, 12,000,000 detective reports, 11,000,000 arrest records, 2,000,000 warrants, and thirty days of video from 9,000 cameras. [00:18:21] S2: And this is just in New York. But she makes it clear that hundreds of other law enforcement agencies from dozens of other countries have come to tour the Batcave to learn from it. Police all over the country and the world are incorporating similar systems into their police departments.
00:18:21 · Amanda Aronczyk, Jessica Tisch
[00:18:21] S2: And this is just in New York. But she makes it clear that hundreds of other law enforcement agencies from dozens of other countries have come to tour the Batcave to learn from it. Police all over the country and the world are incorporating similar systems into their police departments. [00:18:39] S8: Let me emphasize. Every day, we have more than 10,000 cops using the analytics in DAS to inform their decision making. And this was a decade ago. [00:18:50] S2: Now way more cops use [00:18:51] S8: it. Using analytics, we can have a safer city and a fairer city too.