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.

Tracking the Times Square Bomber

Federal agents have arrested 30-year-old Faisal Shahzad, a Connecticut man suspected of rigging a car bomb to explode in NYC's Times Square. 

Officials were able to track the suspect by his cell phone number, which he provided to the woman he bought the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder from.

The SUV was rigged with fuel, fertilizer and explosives.

Shahzad was arrested at JFK Airport on Monday night on his way to Dubai.

He told investigators he acted alone and is not connected to a terrorist organization, but authorities are looking into Shahzad's link to a YouTube posting that may have announced the thwarted Times Square attack.

The video features the voice of Qari Hussain Mehsud, the “Pakistani Taliban master trainer of suicide bombers,” according to the Long War Journal. The video congratulates fellow Muslims for the “jaw-breaking blow to Satan’s USA" and claimed the attack is revenge for the slaying of extremist leaders in Iraq and Pakistan and for “the recent rain of drone attacks.”

The YouTube website that hosted the video was created by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan News Channel.