Cameras Beat Police to Scene

But what happens next?

• 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.

  But even before that blanket coverage begins, the “Big Brother’’ network is being put to better use.

  Call takers and dispatchers now see real-time video if there is a surveillance cameras within 150 feet of a 911 call, thanks to a $6 million upgrade to the city’s “computer-aided dispatch” system.

We'll tell you what happens next:

• a rather high percentage of the cameras aren't working;
• cops running from paper job to paper job can't get there in a timely fashion;

cops in 200K mile pool cars can't get to the jobs;

• victims are going to get dragged into gangways, alleys, garages and are going to get a lot more damaged added to their plate since cops can't find them.

We will repeat what we've said before - a camera has never prevented a crime. And a camera has never climbed down off the pole and actually arrested anyone.

Crime may have moved around the corner, but criminals don't fear cameras. The amount of data generated by these machines is impossible to catalog and store and the criminals know that no one is going to be running through a few thousand hours of film to find a cigarette seller or three-bag dope pinch. Cameras provide an illusion of police presence, but only the sheep are impressed. The wolves haven't cared for a while.