Toll booths are gone at New York City's tunnels, replaced by anti-terror metal towers that will soon be erected at bridges as well under a $100 million Metropolitan Transportation Authority project, a CBS affiliate reported Wednesday.
But authorities are being secretive about what exactly can be monitored by the structures, the outlet reported — and New Yorkers have their doubts.
"The base of these new pieces that are going up include whatever fiber optics are necessary for those Homeland Security items," MTA Chairman Joe Lhota told the news outlet.
Asked if they could include facial recognition, Lhota curtly replied: "I'm not at liberty to discuss that."
"A lot of the board members felt they didn't have all the details they would have wanted, myself included," New York City Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg, an MTA board member, told CBS.
Locals have their own theories.
"I'm going to guess that it's not just a decoration," Manhattanite Alyssa Renkas, who lives on the Upper West Side, told the affiliate.
"It's a bit mind-boggling that the MTA is approving $100 million for what appears to us to be big, decorative pylons," John Kaehny, the leader of the watchdog group Reinvent Albany told CBS. "What we're asking for is transparency from the MTA."
Lhota told CBS all necessary Homeland Security technology remains in place at all crossings, even where the new towers have yet popped up.
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