Surveillance cameras do work

    May 4, 2010

    New York and Washington, D.C. newspapers have claimed that all of the surveillance cameras in the Times Square area didn't help in arresting a suspect in last weekend's attempted bombing in New York. But that doesn't mean cameras didn't play an important role.

    The first report was that NYPD was looking for a guy seen on camera taking off his shirt near the SUV packed with explosives. Turns out he wasn't a suspect.

    Before he drove the vehicle onto Manhattan, the alleged bomber heavily tinted the windows. The NYC cameras were never able to get a look at the driver. And he even put stolen license plates on the vehicle to make it harder yet to trace him.

    But as police started looking for the man who bought the SUV, the trail led them to a Connecticut shopping center where a week earlier the suspect, Faisal Shahzad, had taken the vehicle for a test drive before purchasing it with cash. The parking lot surveillance cameras got a good look at him.

    On Monday, authorities were beginning to close in on Shahzad and now they could link him to the SUV and had a picture of him. They found him right after he boarded a plane later that day on his way to Dubai.

    Maybe the shopping center camera didn't break the case, but it helped put the handcuffs on the suspect.

    -- PSW staff

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