Chicago Mayor Unveils Surveillance Plan

[Rose Siding]

CHICAGO -- More than 2,000 surveillance cameras in public places would be tied in to a network that would use sophisticated software to spot emergencies or suspicious behavior under a plan announced Thursday by Mayor Richard Daley.

"Cameras are the equivalent of hundreds of sets of eyes. They are the next best thing to having police officers stationed at every potential trouble spot," Daley said.

Officials said the bulk of the cameras already are in use at O'Hare International Airport, on the city's transit lines and in public housing, parks and schools, along with 30 police are using to try to curb violent crime. An additional 250 surveillance cameras still to be bought will raise the number available to more than 2,000. Locations for the new cameras have not been determined.
.....
State Sen. Rickey Hendon, a Democrat, said cameras can be valuable when positioned at potential terrorist targets, such as airports or water-treatment plants, but he believes too many are in black and Hispanic neighborhoods.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-chicago-surveillance,0,526003.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[el_gato]

1. The real purpose of all this surveillance

Turing America into one big prison.

[Freddie Stubbs]

21. Why would a Democratic Mayor want that?

:shrug:

[tritsofme]

22. You obviously don't have and advanced understanding of Illinois politics

Aside from a few good apples like Barrack Obama, politicians in IL are the most bipartisian in the country, working together to screw the public.

Almost every major figure in IL politics, be he a Democrat or Republican is throughly corrupt.

[AngryAmish]

2. The current cameras are working

They were installed in high crime areas (I drive through these areas a lot). Where I used to see hookers and drug dealers, I now see normal people doing their thing.

I do not live in an area where these cameras are installed. I may not like being under surveillance. But if it reduces crime maybe it will be ok.

[el_gato]

3. Maybe we should just outlaw freedom

that might reduce crime as well!

How people so meekly give up their rights is beyond me.

Truly a nation of sheep.

[AngryAmish]

4. Disagree

The cameras are trained on a public way. They do not look in any areas where there is an expectation of privacy.

I don't know if you are familiar with open-air drug markets. They are not good. Chicago has way too many of them. We lead the nation in murders most years. The Chicago Police has done a bad job for a long time because it was overwhelmingly minorities who died. Nobody in power cared. If this helps to lower the crime rate and more people live, then it is a good thing. The cameras are a force-multiplier for the police.

[Book Lover]

9. May I draw your attention to this part of the story?

Daley dismissed privacy concerns, saying the only places where the city installs cameras are public spaces. But he said private companies could choose to join their cameras to the network -- for a yet-to-be-determined fee -- so that 911 operators would have access to those cameras should something go awry in a private building.

[amber dog democrat]

11. why don't we legalize drugs?

and put an end to the charade? We have these cameras at nearly every major road and controlled intersections all through out the city. I don't like them either and or course the real cameras you want to wonder about are the ones you can't see.

But all that aside, I am thinking we are already in an Orwellian state.
That may have happened a long time ago.

[AngryAmish]

13. Agree about the drugs

[MadHound]

18. And the facists in power applaud your sentiment

First off, your claim that they are ". . . trained on a public way. They do not look in any areas where there is an expectation of privacy." is a bit disingenous at best. Yes, they are mounted in public places, but they can be trained on private spaces. Doughnuts to dollars, each and every single one of these cameras has the capability to be remotely operated, and somebody back at HQ can turn the camera so that it can peek wherever the operator wants it to peek. There have been several cases of police camera operators behaving no better than your common peeping tom, directing the cameras to look into open bedroom windows, bathrooms, etc, etc. I would suggest you take a look at the book "Snitch Culture" by Jim Redden <http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0922915636/202-6977647-1273401>. It goes into great depth and detail about the illegal and immoral uses that cameras are put to.

And I understand your concern regarding neighborhoods wracked with crime. Up until a year ago I lived in a neighborhood that had dueling crack houses that would on occaision settle their differences with running gun battles up and down the street. And you know what, I was against cameras being installed on my street. Rather, bring your neighbors together, band together to drive the drug houses out, and force the police to do their job. It is a long, hard process, but better than giving up your right to privacy in order to preserve the thin veneer of security(remember you Franklin here).

Sorry friend, but allowing cameras into anywhere in order to provide security leads down that long slippery slope to a facist state where we are all monitored, 24/7. We're already far down that slope, we don't need to go further.

[orthogonal]

8. Fortunate son

I do not live in an area where these cameras are installed. I may not like being under surveillance. But if it reduces crime maybe it will be ok.

Yes, fortunately, you can afford to live in a neighborhood that has privacy.

As long as it keeps the proles in line, I guess it's ok. Poor people don't value their privacy anyway. Why, I bet they don't really http://ar.vegnews.org/self_aware.html">feel pain!

[chiburb]

15. Yeah. The hookers and dealers moved around the corner...

So what exactly is working currently?

[private_ryan]

17. the safest country in the world right now is North Korea

would you want to live there?

[St. Jarvitude]

24. The scary thing is that private surveillance systems will be connected

This means that the same guy can - theoerically - watch you walk around a grocery store, leave, walk down the street, and go to a bar totally uninterrupted.

The main problem with government "I Spy" systems is not that they help to deter crime - maybe they do - but that they offer a horrible potential usage.

The whole idea of a massive, government-run surveillance system is like saying that building large, barbed-wire internment camps every 25 miles is a good way to deal with terrorism.

[phantom power]

5. "sophisticated software" ?

I'd love to see what that is. Machine vision is still more or less in the chipping-stone-tools stage, even when it comes to something as "simple" as identifying all the objects in a photo. Forget understanding a sequence of events in a video, much less being able to discern what an "emergency" or "suspicious behavior" is.

Whoever sold them that software is pulling a marketing con-job.

[leesa]

6. Waste of money. These have been shown in the cities they have been

tried already to be of no value. Made someone lots of bucks though.

[saigon68]

7. ITS 1984 (THE BOOK)

Its finally come to my beautiful Country.

[tom_paine]

12. It sure has. But our beautiful country, I think, is likely gone

and not coming back.

Don't get me wrong. I have and intend to continue working hard to try and restore the Old American Republic, as well as donating, etc.

But I cannot kid myself any longer. The media, the voting, the courts, all WORSE and MORE CORRUPT after three years of striving against it.

I pray I am wrong but I only expect Germany 1936-1940 (I should add that it will NOT be an exact match because that would be bad PR) to play out after Nov. if Bunnypants retains power.

[grasswire]

10. we're doomed

stories like this are just about the final blow for me.

America! Wake up!

[GizDog]

14. I thought

It was just the republicans that were invading our privacy and personal freedoms.

However, we are so hopelessly divided that the masses can never mount any effective protest.

[chiburb]

16. Daley is DINO. n/t

[Romulus]

19. Sen. Hendon: SHUT UP

State Sen. Rickey Hendon, a Democrat, said cameras can be valuable when positioned at potential terrorist targets, such as airports or water-treatment plants, but he believes too many are in black and Hispanic neighborhoods.

He proposed a law to limit the number of surveillance cameras police could install, but it failed in the state Assembly. "We can have police protection without spying on people who are doing nothing wrong," he said.


Don't you know Mayor Daley has those people's best interests at heart? Why don't you instead lobby for more cameras to be set up in the North Shore, after the crime in the camera-ed neighborhoods drop? Obviously you don't care about those black and Latino residents. Why, you must be "against us" if you won't go along with Leader Daley's plan.


</sarcasm>

[jayfish]

20. That Is Some Of The Worst English I...

have ever seen in American print media. Does Newsday outsource their editing?


Jay

[slaveplanet]

23. Bald faced lie

"Cameras are the equivalent of hundreds of sets of
eyes"

Hardly...They are like bionic eyes, things can be saved to
file, manipulated and used for harm....that's something a set
of eyes have a much harder time doing.    Anyone ever see The
Running Man.