Valentine’s Day saw the return of Sky Watch, the NYPD’s friendly neighborhood guard tower, to Nostrand Ave and St. Marks Ave in Crown Heights. Stopping to take a commemorative photo, we were interrupted by four undercover cops stationed nearby, who wasted no time with niceties. “What are you, a terrorist? You look like you’re taking photographs of the officers in that secure area so you can follow them home to hurt them or kill them! Cops get death threats, you know!” Remember when last year East Harlem Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito said, “We need to build community relations, and these things send the wrong message. There should be interaction on the street, instead of towering over people.” Somehow, this doesn’t seem like the interaction she was talking about. Perhaps the NYPD could try approaching more people as humans, not as would-be terrorists and cop killers.

As though stories of Sky Watch towers dominating the Shea Stadium lot scene weren’t interesting enough, the NY Times dropped some more knowledge about the towers:

Originally designed for deer hunters in Georgia, the towers have been used by the military and police departments across the country over the last decade.

We had no idea the towers had been around so long, or that they could be used for shooting people like animals.

Photo by Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

Welcome everybody’s favorite NYPD watch tower back to Crown Heights. Sky Watch is now posted up on the corner of Nostrand Ave and Prospect Place. A word of caution: If you decide to be neighborly and drop off a housewarming gift, don’t rack it from the Key Foods across the street. Sky Watch doesn’t take too kindly to anybody stealing fruit baskets on its watch.

So long Sky Watch! Curbed provides the photo of the NYPD carting one of their prison yard watch towers away from 129th Street in Harlem. Last week in the NY Post, residents criticized the tower’s special placement outside The Lenox and The Lenox Grand, two new luxury condo developments, though the NYPD claims they were simply responding to a rise in murders.

Feeling left out? The NYPD plans to lease 3 more Sky Watches for a neighborhood near you.

Skywatch photo from Curbed.

“You need a little clarity? Check the similarity!” The NYPD is using extraordinary means to maintain control at Carroll Street and Troy Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The apparatus in question is Sky Watch, a “mobile platform for surveillance, assessment, and response.” According to one officer, the watch tower has been effective at reducing crime since it was installed in May 2006. While the Sky Watch would seem to be useful in confined environments, like prisons and special events, we think a six month installation on city streets simply pushes crime to nearby blocks. However, we did catch the contraption in action.

After this show, we totally expected Chewbacca to pop out of this AT-ST knock off.