This is NYC Transit's fancy new camera - it costs $23,000 and doesn't even record.
A four-year push to hook up hundreds of cameras in 32 subway stations has become an embarrassing boondoggle, with a ballooning pricetag and nothing yet to show for it.
The 910 cameras, designed to capture images of straphangers entering and exiting turnstiles, won't even be wired to recording devices until some time next month.
By then, the pricetag will have grown from $15 million to $21.3 million - meaning each camera will cost a staggering $23,000.
Critics say the bungle is emblematic of how the Metropolitan Transportation Authority repeatedly fouls up technology and security projects, often in dramatic and costly fashion.
And critics fear the foulups are not only a waste of money - they potentially leave the city vulnerable. Nearly nine years after the 9/11 terror attacks, only 46% of the city's 4,100 subway system cameras are wired to working recording devices, the MTA admits.
The importance of security cameras reemerged two weeks ago, when a crude car bomb was discovered in an SUV in the heart of Times Square.
In the wake of that near-tragedy, Mayor Bloomberg visited London, which boasts 12,000 cameras in its subway system. Those cameras were key in helping authorities identify the terrorists who bombed the Tube in 2005.
Transit experts, including some MTA executives, say the $23,000 camera illustrates precisely how the authority has aimed too high, making projects overly complicated while lacking the technical expertise and management to shepherd them to completion.
"A lot of times you need to learn to walk before you run, but they want to start running before walking," said Jerome Gold, who worked for the independent engineering company monitoring major projects for the MTA board.
The problems with the MTA's surveillance cameras, watchdogs say, stretch from top to bottom.
Different types of camera equipment have been installed by different contractors under the oversight of different MTA units. Some were hooked up as part of station rehabilitations while others fell under anti-terror programs, with different arms of the MTA overseeing them.
"It's all over the place," one source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The $23,000 camera debacle came about, critics say, because the agency wanted to raise the bar on its camera system - but raised it too high.
While a previous project to install 16 cameras in 60 stations stored recordings on site, NYC Transit wanted contractor TAP Electrical to store all recordings from the 910 cameras - about 28 per station - on a network created by a new company.
The agency believed the new network would be able to handle the larger amount of data and enable information to be transmitted digitally, NYC Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges said.
Only it didn't work out. There were technical glitches, and attempts by the start-up company to fix the software failed, Fleuranges said. Then the start-up went belly up.
NYC Transit is now replacing the flawed equipment with devices manufactured by Panasonic and expect to have the cameras completely up and running in June - more than three years behind schedule.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/05/16/2010-05-16_subways_blind_spot_camera_system_is_years_late_over_budget_doesnt_record.html#ixzz0o9IjMKbf
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