New York - In his "State of the City" address on Wednesday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced plans to equip 911 call centers to receive digital images and video from cell phones and computers, as a means of fighting crime.

"If you see a crime in progress or a dangerous building condition, you'll be able to transmit images to 911, or online to nyc.gov," Bloomberg said. "And we'll start extending the same technology to 311 to allow New Yorkers to step forward and document nonemergency quality of life concerns, holding city agencies accountable for correcting them quickly and efficiently."

CNET News.com reported that similar technology has been installed by Connecticut-based PowerPhone at call centers in Colorado, Alaska, Connecticut and Mississippi. Cost will be a major factor, as PowerPhone's Incident Linked Multimedia system costs around $10,000 per call center phone.

"Getting the money to fund these projects is one of the big challenges," PowerPhone CEO Chris Salafia told News.com. "We're working within the industry and with government agencies to make grants available."

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2ut2f2 (Bloomberg press release)
http://tinyurl.com/254rse (CNET)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/nyregion/18cameras.html