NYPD and Microsoft collaborate to create the Domain Awareness System (DAS)
Does It Make Us Safer?
In August of 2012, the New York Police Department (NYPD) and Microsoft announced a joint venture known as the Domain Awareness System (DAS). DAS technology gives heretofore-unprecedented technology. NYPD now has the ability monitor 3,500 existing public and privately owned surveillance cameras in Lower and Midtown Manhattan. The DAS dashboard is also wired to data feeds from criminal and terrorist databases, and makes use of other information technologies such as license plate readers and radiological sensors. DAS gives the NYPD a tremendous suite of tools to prevent terrorist activities, though the system is not cheap: the initial cost to design and implement the DAS was reported to be $230 million.
At a press conference unveiling the DAS, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that the system is “programed to sound an alarm” should any pre-attack indicators (e.g. unattended backpack in Time Square). Should a package be left where it shouldn’t be, officers can quickly re-wind footage to discover its origin. DAS cameras can also be programmed to focus on a unique article of clothing, based on color. What makes the DAS remarkable is that it fuses information from various types of components rapidly, and this gives law enforcement personnel better situational awareness.
Funding for the DAS project came primarily from Homeland Security grants and the Microsoft Corporation. As part of a unique business arrangement with Microsoft, the New York City government will receive a 30% share of profits from Microsoft sales of DAS technology to other departments. NYPD officials indicate they will invest any proceeds from sales DAS back into the city’s counter terrorism programs. The DAS enhances NYPD’s ability to observe high threat activities, and provide a greater level of protection to the citizenry of New York City than has been previously possible.
There is substantial public and governmental support for the use of new technologies to detect terrorist and criminal activities. An April 2013 poll administered by Rasmussen Reports indicated that 70% of Americans supported the use of surveillance cameras in public places. In Katz vs. the United States, the Supreme Court stated: “the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even his own home or office, is not subject to Fourth Amendment protection.”
The City of Oakland is in the process of developing its own version of the DAS known as the Domain Awareness Center (DAC), which is being touted by government officials as state of the art technology that will ultimately make the city safer. City officials, however, are facing a backlash from citizens and the ACLU who contend that the DAC has the potential to become an NSA-like surveillance program. The Oakland DAC project is being curtailed until privacy and civil rights concerns are addressed.
Domain awareness systems are ground breaking, potentially life saving technologies. The Boston Marathon bombing suspects may have never been tracked down had it not been for privately owned surveillance cameras that captured their images and activities near the race’s finish line. In areas such as Lower Manhattan, which is covered by the DAS, terrorists have greater difficulty moving about undetected than in areas without the system.
The DAS is very expensive, but this factor needs to be weighed against the devastating consequences of terrorist attacks. The Boston Marathon bombings resulted in 3 deaths and 260 people being wounded, including 14 individuals whose lost one or more of their legs. The financial cost of the bombings is estimated to be as much as $333 million in “damage to the local economy, lost wages, retail sales and infrastructure damage.” Extended hospital care for the 70 most seriously wounded people is expected to be as much as $9 million. What may be more difficult to assess are the psychological and emotional injuries suffered by victims of the bombings. Many survivors report that they are plagued by depression, anxiety, and an inability to sleep. Taking these elements of an terrorist strike into consideration, DAS and related technologies seem to be a burden jurisdictions in the U.S. would be be willing to pay for safety and peace of mind.
