Information Overload in Times Square Search

Apparently pinpointing one man—or even one vehicle—in Times Square is more difficult than it seems. According to the Wall Street Journal, New York City police officers spent hours searching through surveillance video in an attempt to pin down Saturday’s car-bombing suspect:

Eight hours into the investigation of a failed car bomb, police said they had spotted the vehicle only for a few seconds on camera.

Police spent much of Sunday combing through images from at least 82 cameras in a multiblock radius to see if they could better track the suspect, described as a man in his 40s.

It is a time-consuming process, police say, and, as of early Sunday evening, only 30 cameras had been reviewed, and only three offered any leads.

With a more advanced and expanded surveillance network, the time it took to review relevant video could have been significantly reduced. Here’s hoping the “Ring of Steel,” Lower Manhattan’s impressive security initiative, is expanded to include Times Square soon.