Chicago Mayor Unveils Surveillance Plan
Associated
Press | September 9 2004
CHICAGO (AP) - 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.
The city plans to buy 250 surveillance cameras and put them
in places with a high risk of crime or terrorism. They would be connected
into a network with 30 cameras police are using to try to curb violent crime,
along with more than 1,000 already at O'Hare Airport, on the city's transit
lines and in public housing projects and schools, Daley said.
The cameras would not all be continuously monitored. But
software would be used to pick up out-of-the-ordinary activity on the video
images, such as a bag being abandoned in a stairwell, a car pulling to the
side of a highway, or movement in an area off-limits to people.
If the software picked up suspicious behavior, a staff member
in the city's Office of Emergency Management would be alerted and could then
notify police, medical personnel or a tow truck - whatever the situation called
for.
Operators in the 911 center would be able to control the
camera's image to help direct aid to a victim or gather evidence for police.
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.
City officials said they studied surveillance systems used
by Las Vegas casinos and hotels, along with the Pentagon and the city of London,
where it is widely estimated that the average Briton is scrutinized by 300
cameras a day.
The Baltimore region is also trying to build a network of
round-the-clock surveillance cameras, and other cities have installed cameras
during big downtown events.
The Chicago system - which is expected to be in place by
the spring of 2006 - would exceed existing projects in how it would tie cameras
to emergency operations, said Ron Huberman, executive director of the city's
Office of Emergency Management.
The $5.1 million cost will be covered through a federal
homeland security grant, Huberman said.
Huberman said the Chicago camera network would not incorporate
face-recognition technology. Tampa police tried the tactic - designed to recognize
potential terrorists and criminals by matching people on the street with a
database of mug shots - but abandoned it after two years, citing its failure
to recognize anyone wanted by authorities.
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