Holiday shoppers and travelers passing through Journal Square in Jersey City, NJ, were under the watchful gaze of a Jersey City Police Department “eye in the sky” which is an elevated booth that can accommodate police officers and is fitted with closed circuit video cameras, officials said.

The “eye in the sky” is located on Journal Square Plaza near the fountain at Kennedy Boulevard and Bergen Avenue. It stands about 25-feet-tall, has flood lights, cameras pointed in several directions, the capacity to transmit video live for officers to monitor at a remote location and it records all video captured by its cameras.

“It is there for the high volume of people during the holiday season,” Jersey City Police Department spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said. “The police department is constantly redeploying its assets throughout the city.”

A 36-year-old Jersey City man making his commute home at 5:20 p.m. tonight said he imagines the tower is a useful deterrent to thieves and other criminals but noted, “I didn’t even notice it was there” after having walking past the imposing structure.

A cab driver waiting to pick up passengers nearby said he didn’t feel the location of the surveillance tower was well chosen. He pointed at three security cameras nearby on the side of Duane Reade and Santander Bank which are apparently monitored by the Port Authority, saying “I don’t know why they put it there, there are cameras everywhere here.” […]