South Philly’s New Intelligence Center is Officially Open

After more than seven years in the making, South Philly is now officially home to one of the nation’s 78 Orwellian-sounding “fusion centers.” Dubbed the “Real-Time Crime Center,” South Philly’s newest Big Brother depot at 20th and Johnston cost upwards of $20 million to build and is expected to cost $2 million annually to maintain—which, luckily (?) will be split with the federal government. Housed in the same location as Philly’s Homeland Security Unit and High Intensity Drug Trafficking Unit Area, the Real-Time Crime Center will aggregate video feeds from surveillance cameras around the city in hopes of helping to combat everything from terrorism to poor weather. As a note of technicality, the center is only officially open now–turns out they’ve been collecting data since their soft open about six months ago. Welcome to the surveillance state, Philly. [Philly.com]