# How surveillance crept up on us

- Source: Planet Money
- Published: 2026-10-23T21:00:00+00:00
- Category: Business
- Original: https://www.npr.org/2026/10/23/nx-s1-5991699/surveillance-new-york-city-nypd-police-security
- Canonical: https://groundlevelnews.com/story/how-surveillance-crept-up-on-us-96fd2c/

For years, police have spent billions of tax dollars on watching us, tracking us, and recording us. In the largest police department in the country, these surveillance systems were paid for and adopted without the kind of public oversight cities usually require. In the wake of 9/11, the New York Police Department built one of the most sophisticated and omnipresent surveillance systems in the count

_Ground Level News shows a short summary only; the full article and all rights belong to Planet Money._