According to Codey, the program is part of the state's larger homeland security effort. The pilot program is costing $1 million, and is being paid for through a combination of federal money and contributions from private security firms.

The system, designed by Donald Sebastian, vice president of R&D at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, differs from the usual closed-circuit TV monitoring in that all data collected by the cameras is fed digitally into a computer for analysis, rather than have security personnel monitor 50 different screens.

The digital technology also allows mall security to share the data directly with local law enforcement, according to Sebastian. The pilot system is expected to be completely operational by the end of this year.

Garden State Plaza is owned by the Westfield Group, the Sydney-based company which has its US headquarters in Los Angeles. The 270-store complex is anchored by Macy's, JC Penney, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Borders Books.