Full Spectrum Surveillance: NYPD, Panopticism and the Public Disciplinary Complex

Recent controversy surrounding the “Lower Manhattan Security Initiative” has yet again breathed new life into the notion of the Panopticon. This initiative marks the latest development in an ultramodern policing strategy that saturates public space with cutting-edge surveillance devices, all linked into the New York Police Department’s (NYPD’s) central database (Buckley 2007). Indeed, the NYPD’s expanding surveillance apparatus sheds considerable light on the symbiotic evolution state power shares with technological innovation, drastically altering the scope in which governmental machinery monitors and regulates political subjects.