Planners seeking to rebuild the World Trade Center have always envisioned that the 16-acre site would have a vibrant streetscape with distinctive buildings, shops and cultural institutions lining a newly restored street grid.

But NYPD’s latest security proposal entails heavy restrictions. The NY Times shed some light into those new plans today. According to a 36-page presentation given by top-ranking police officials in recent months, the entire area would be placed within a security zone, in which only specially screened taxis, limousines and cars would be allowed through “sally ports,” or barriers staffed by police officers, constructed at each of five entry points.
One of the plans are for the NYPD to photograph the license plate of every vehicle that enters Manhattan.

Operation Sentinel would include radiological scanning at the bridges and tunnels that link Manhattan to New Jersey and other parts of the city.

“Data on each vehicle — its time-stamped image, license plate imprint and radiological signature — would be sent to a command center in Lower Manhattan, where it would be indexed and stored for at least a month as part of a broad security plan that emphasizes protecting the city’s financial district,” said a NYPD spokesman.

Police officials were inspired by the surveillance system in London. They hope to have their program in place by 2010.

A major challenge is to develop technology to discern the radiological signature of vehicles across several lanes at a toll plaza, where many enter at once, and to have the ability to align that data with the correct closed-circuit image and license plate.

(Source: NY Times)