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Chicago police bet big on pricey surveillance cameras. Two decades later, the devices do little to solve most crimes.


While installing thousands of police cameras has undoubtedly helped catch criminals and solve cases, Chicago’s ever-growing surveillance system has yet to become the crime-fighting panacea predicte…

Despite research suggesting cameras work best in carefully chosen places with higher crime, the city has put many in safer neighborhoods – at times at the behest of aldermen, in a review process with little paper trail and watered-down oversight. In recent years, records show, police have ramped up efforts to make better use of their behemoth surveillance operation, which is anchored by city-owned PODs but also includes permitted access to roughly 35,000 other cameras owned by the CTA, schools and private businesses. In a statement, Casey with the Office of Public Safety Administration said a team from his department worked with Chicago police to review requests for new city-owned PODs and prioritize installations based on crime rates and where cameras are already located.

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