CTA Cameras Are Not Exactly A Crime Deterrent
By aaroncynic in News on Mar 1, 2013 9:40PM
Chicago Transit Authority president Forest Claypool fired back at the Sun-Times this week in a letter to the editor after the newspaper published a piece indicating that despite thousands of cameras on train cars, platforms, busses and stations, crime on public transit is on the rise.
The Sun-Times first published findings from an analysis that shows crime at rail stations rose 21 percent last year and 32 percent since 2010. Since 2010, the CTA doubled the amount of cameras at stations, now 3,600, at a cost of $26 million.
The study shows overall crime rates, particularly “deceptive practice” (fare evasion) were up but crimes classified as violent were down 30 percent. Other crimes classified as “nonviolent,” such as theft, drug crimes and simple assault rose 26 percent, with cell phone thefts as the highest contributing factor. Meanwhile, the city is close to making arrests in two out of three station crimes.
Both the Chicago Police Department and the CTA called this a win. Alderman Willie Cochran told the Sun-Times, “we are apprehending suspects and arrests are up. I think that says something.” Claypool followed suit in his letter, saying that the Sun-Times missed the mark on their analysis of the effectiveness of cameras and public safety, particularly since fare evasion saw the highest jump. Claypool wrote, “While a crime, fare evasion does not directly impact the safety and security of customers.” He also added that in 2012, 7,700 crimes were reported systemwide out of 545 million rides, which means .0014% of CTA rides involved a crime.
What both the Sun-Times study and Claypool’s response both show is that surveillance cameras are still being treated as a crime deterrent and as a solution to curb crime rates. The idea isn’t new — in 2009, Chicagoist Associate Editor Samantha Abernethy asked Mayor Richard Daley if the Chicago Police Department were to get stimulus money, where it would go. His exact response was, “The future are cameras.” Both Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and Claypool have said the cameras curbed violent crime, since catching more fare evaders apparently stops criminals “at the gate.”
While cameras certainly have played a role in making arrests after a crime occurs, arrests and the "broken windows theory" aren’t hard evidence the CTA’s cameras are an actual crime deterrent any more than they are in other places in Chicago, or in other cities across the world. Chicago is the most surveilled city in the U.S., with well more than 10,000 cameras citywide, many of which are networked together. More than one study has pointed out that cameras show isolated effectiveness in stopping crimes and assist in solving them, they don’t cut crime significantly on the whole. According to the Sun-Times, in Britain, the world’s most surveilled city, research indicates their camera system is “almost ineffective in preventing crime.” Robert Kelly, president of Amalgamated Transit Union 308, which represents CTA workers said “people who are committing crimes don’t care about cameras. That’s a proven fact. Everybody in the world knows that banks have cameras and people still rob banks.”