Thursday, February 19, 2009

Chicago, England

Mayor Daley has argued that security and terrorism won’t be an issue if his Olympic dreams come true because, by 2016, there will be a surveillance camera on every street corner in Chicago.

On Thursday, Orozco refused to say how many cameras are currently linked to the 911 center. But, he reiterated Daley’s earlier promise. “We’re going to grow the system until we eventually cover one end of the city to the other,” he said.
So my bet is that we'll see the exact same thing we did in the UK. A mixture of crime moving out into the suburbs and ever inventive ways of vandalizing them.

Basically, areas like Englewood and BackoftheYards will have their cameras destroyed or stolen pretty quickly and they won't get replaced or repaired very quickly, especially when repairmen start getting attacked and they refuse to go back.

Neighborhoods closer to the suburbs will see a decrease in crime as the drug dealers and burglars just shift thier 'offices' over a few blocks to areas that don't have cameras. A proportional crime increase in the 'burbs and collar counties will soon follow.

Maybe a better plan to reduce crime in Chicago is to put cameras inside the offices of the Mayor and his Merry Aldercritters.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

A "Must read."
Underground Chicago police blog discusses crime cameras and their lack of functioning.
http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/2009/02/cameras-beat-police-to-scene.html
I''l remind you Chicago is facing major deficits also so maintenance and repair are highly suspect.

"Cameras provide an illusion of police presence, but only the sheep are impressed. The wolves haven't cared for a while."

Here's something from the comments section:
"We had a women shot in the back of the neck a few nights ago up in Rogers park. A quite obvious cameras mounted at Jarvis and Ashland was about fifty feet away. Sure hope the bad guy looked up and smiled at. Deterent ?"

Anonymous said...

Do you know exactly where the funding is coming from for the cameras?

Seems to me that the money oculd be better spent on, uh, more police?

kaveman said...

A super-soaker filled with vinegar would make short work of the cameras as long as it doesn't rain while the magic works. Salt water will do the trick as well and is a bit cheaper.

Don said...

CCTV boom has failed to slash crime, say police
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/06/ukcrime1
From the article: "Massive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology."

Anonymous said...

Would a drive-by with an EMP device take out a CCTV?

Anyway, what's left of Chicago is so scummy that the only reason that having the Olympics there has any plausibility whatsoever is Daley's chutzpah. Nevertheless, one has to remember that Daley is only one step down from Blago on the loony ladder, and like Blago and a lot of other Illinois pols, he could disappear any day as the result of yet another corruption investimagationization.