Chicago To Expand Video Surveillance System

[theearthisround]

http://www.nbc5.com/news/3959595/detail.html?z=dp&dpswid=2265994&dppid=65193

"In Chicago, Big Brother isn't only watching you; he's listening, too.

Starting in December, police will begin to install 50 new street surveillance cameras, complete with gunshot detectors like those on cameras already in place, city officials announced Tuesday. Developers say the microphones are sensitive enough to detect when a silencer is being used to muffle the sound of gunfire."

"Mayor Richard M. Daley said the camera program shows the city is paving the way for the rest of the country.

"We're so far advanced than any other city -- and sometimes the state and federal governments -- they come here to look at the technology," Daley said."

[shoelace414]

1. Are silencers that much of a problem?

[Occulus]

2. I wonder how you go about

simulating a real gunshot.....

[ret5hd]

5. i don't know for sure...

but i bet a firecracker would get pretty close

[Bat Boy]

7. They do.

And you can never tell exactly where it's coming from, even the cops say that.

[frank frankly]

3. please note that Mr. Daley is a "Democrat"

I will never love Big Brother.

shove it up your ass, Daley.

[el_gato]

4. fuck Daley, he won't be happy until freedom has been eradicated

what a maggot

[Bat Boy]

6. I can't believe I'm saying this...

But living in Humboldt Park, where during the summer our favorite game was "fireworks or gunfire?", and Drug Mall USA is one block away, and people get shot to death on the street half a block away, I'm not too upset.

Anything to make it stop.

And that really scares me.

[Logansquare]

10. The people in 'hoods where this has been used like it

I can understand why someone in "K-town" would be willing to give up privacy in order to drive out the heroin trade.

[kysrsoze]

11. This doesn't address the rampant crime associated with Daley's office

The amount of corruption associated with Daley is astounding, but I'm also glad to have these cameras. I live nearby and the areas where these cameras are definitely need them. The question is how far they're willing to go in deploying them. One on every corner would be bad and intrusive.

[Logansquare]

13. Good point--maybe some cameras in City Hall offices?

It'd be a good start.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

8. Doesn't bother me

In big cities you can assume you're already on camera whenever you're outside. In my neighborhood, apartment buildings have cameras that cover doorways and street corners where dealers and lookouts set up shop, and that's okay by me. Murders are down in Chicago, and I doubt it's because people have gotten nicer.

[Inland]

9. Is anyone really against this program?

Not me. The cameras aren't even monitored: rather, they detect unusual motion and, apparently, gunshots.

Unless somebody considers gunshots to be a private matter, they shouldn't have a problem with it.

[Stinky The Clown]

12. Baltimore is doing the same thing. It was on last night's local news.

I'm not so sure I am opposed to this, really.

These cameras have, I think, been in use in Europe for a while. I know for sure they're in the UK.

So long as they only use them in public areas, I see no reason to be concerned. That said, I am as scared as anyone that they could be misused, but in concept, I think they simply allow the police to see more than they could by normal patrol. This is not a fully considered opinion, just my initial reaction to this story.

Before you flame me, I am a staunch believer in personal privacy, but sometimes common sense needs to be taken into account, too.

[Us vs Them]

14. Wow, we're such a technologically advanced city

Too bad we spend millions of dollars on 'nifty gadgets' instead of work initiatives or funding for the looming public transportation budget crisis. Crime can be prevented by more than just heavy policing. Give people access to a civilised world, and they will behave as such.

Glad to see my tax dollars at work.

[Logansquare]

15. Yes, and as much as I like "the bean" in Mill. park

I wish the city had spent the money building parks in my community instead of creating a TIF district in the super-rich Loop. The kids in my neighborhood play ball in the alley or sit bored on stoops waiting for something to happen.

[Us vs Them]

16. Millenium Park.

Lovely. Spend millions of dollars so that bums have a 'hip' place to sleep.\

Is there any specific and effective way we can get involved in how this city is run?

[Logansquare]

17. We pretty much have a dictator and a rubber-stamp council

Aldermen tread very carefully in order to not anger his Highness, mayor-for-life. Tom Murphy, a white alderman on the sw side, did something to anger the mayor (probably mildly criticized him), and found himself redistricted into a largely black ward. Most believe it was retaliation and an effort to get him out of the council, but he went ahead an won his next election, anyway. It may not help him though--Daley's got a memory like an elephant, and takes years to get back in his good favor.

You can do a lot on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis, but I don't know what we can do to stop the city level corruption. I fear that the far Right would love to crush Daley and put in their own corrupt guy. It's a machine, but its a Democratic one.