Does the following top the Chicago PD's Robo-cams?
Without fanfare, the NYPD has begun installing Sky Watch, an eye in the sky mounted on a tower, The Post has learned.
The Sky Watch, about two stories tall, consists of a booth for a cop that stands atop a tower that collapses when the officer is ready to leave.
The booth, which gives the cop a line of sight from 20 feet up, has four cameras, a high-powered spotlight and various sensors. The digital cameras, which continue recording when the booth is unstaffed, save the video to a hard drive.
The units, which costs from $40,000 to $100,000 apiece, are also being used by the U.S. Border Patrol and cops in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Dallas and Fort Worth.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said the department has leased one or two of the devices and hopes to eventually have five.
Since they're moveable, they're more flexible than fixed cameras.
One tower was installed about three weeks ago at 129th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard in Harlem - drawing cheers and jeers.
Some, like juice-bar owner Nigel Bennett, say it makes the neighborhood safer.
"It's a hot corner - a lot of excitement, a lot of young kids out there, you see a lot of fights," Bennett said. "Since the tower has been there, it's calmed down."
Others cast a dim eye at the watchtower, saying it was installed only to protect two luxury condo complexes going up on the corner.
One is The Lenox, a 12-story, 77-unit building whose penthouse sold for $2.45 million.
The other is The Lenox Grand, an eight-story, 19-unit building that has two duplex penthouses.
Lloyd Estridge, 24, an electrician who worked on The Lenox, said, "They wait until multimillion-dollar apartments go up and then they want to watch over Harlem."
The NYPD said the tower was placed in Harlem to combat a surge in murders.
"We've had a spike in murders there," said Browne. "The general use would be to address areas where we have spikes in crime.
"It literally gives us the high ground as a observation post and as a high-visibility deterrent and as a potential investigative tool."
In May, a Sky Watch was installed at Carroll Street and Troy Avenue in Brooklyn, and is considered a success at helping reducing crime in Crown Heights. |
