Results tagged “surveillance”

The CTA's board approved a plan today that will bring security cameras to all 144 of its train stations; 45 stations already have cameras in place. The contract, with Teleste Corp. of Georgetown, Texas, will cost $4.3 million to put the new high-resolution equipment in place. First up will be the Green Line, which will have cameras in place by the end of the year. Officials hope to have all stations covered by the end of May 2010. [CBN]

Redflex lobbyists include former Chicago Ald. Mark Fary (12th), husband of O'Hare expansion chief Rosemarie Andolino, and William Griffin, a friend of Mayor Daley and Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th).

More surveillance news: The city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communication has put into action plans to expand their network to include security cameras already in place at businesses and private residences. Feeds, received through encrypted Internet transmissions, would only be accessed when needed, using multiple time shots and camera angles to “build a synergistic view” of crimes. The infrastructure and software necessary for the additional surveillance is already in place, and participants should be able to connect to the network by the end of the month. Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th), chairman of the Police and Fire Committee, signed the ordinance on Wednesday. [Trib, S-T, The Windy Citizen]

The city expects to collect more than $50 million in fines this year from red-light violations caught on camera. The number of cameras being installed to bust drivers is growing, with 104 functional cameras already at intersections throughout the city and plans to install 25 more by the end of the year. Contrary to published reports [PDF] that show intersection surveillance may actually increase crashes and injuries, the city is claiming that accidents have decreased by 30 percent in intersections with cameras, and that the number of drivers who are actually running red lights is down by 60 percent. City numbers also show that pedestrian injuries, often resulting from drivers making illegal right turns on red, have declined as well.

Back in October, the city started soliciting bids to install surveillance cameras on street sweeping machines to help bust parking scofflaws. It worked! According to a proposed ordinance he unveiled yesterday, Mayor Daley wants to mount cameras on all the city's sweepers and start issuing $50 robotickets to illegal parkers.

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Chicago took another step towards fulfilling Mayor Daley’s vow that by 2016, we’ll have cameras on “almost every block.”