From New York Magazine
Is the NYPD ‘Ring of Steel’ Effective? And Is It Worth the Cost to Privacy?
By Ali Winston
Mayor Bloomberg touted the "Ring of Steel" (nicknamed after a similar system in London) as a key element in fighting terrorists by scaring them off, which he has said is the city's "No. 1 priority." Commissioner Kelly is particularly fond of the technology: He has expressed his desire to extend his roving eyes to all of Manhattan and has touted video surveillance as both an investigative tool and a crime deterrent....
"Cameras are not going to deter terrorism," says Jennifer King, a doctoral student at UC Berkeley's School of Information. In the event of a terrorist attack, cameras will at best provide forensic evidence of the event, as they did at the still-unsolved bombing of an Armed Forces Career Center in Times Square last year....