NYPD links 500 subway security cameras

In the wake of the Times Square bomb plot, NYPD officials Monday announced they have electronically linked nearly 500 subway security cameras in the city's major rail hubs, including Penn Station, into a unified security center.

The cameras involved include those at Times Square and Grand Central Terminal, which are all linked to to a downtown command center for the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, a 2005 project started by the police as a major counterterrorism effort.

When completed, the beefed-up Midtown Security Initiative and its counterpart downtown will comprise a network of 3,000 private and government security cameras.

"As multiple attacks worldwide show, terrorists target mass transit systems for maximum casualties. In New York, we have thwarted plots in Times Square and Herald Square, and we know that the city remains in the crosshairs," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a prepared statement.

Kelly, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman Jay Walder announced the expanded hookup during a news conference at the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center, where cops, MTA and Port Authority security personnel monitor the video feeds.

Aside from subway and street cameras, investigators monitor and scan real-time alerts from special license plate readers, as well as 911 police activity reports, Kelly said. Cops are also using special analytical computer programs designed to detect suspicious activity.

The midtown security initiative was sparked after Faisal Shahzad of Connecticut tried to set off explosives in an sport utility vehicle near Times Square, police said. He pleaded guilty in June to terrorism charges and is awaiting sentencing.