Police State: Power of High-Tech Camera Security Cameras in Chicago Revealed

They are watching you in Chicago. I mean they are seriously watching you. A new article exposes just how intrusive the new camera network in Chicago is as they spy on residents.


A vast network of high-tech surveillance cameras that allows Chicago police to zoom in on a crime in progress and track suspects across the city is raising privacy concerns.

Chicago's path to becoming the most-watched US city began in 2003 when police began installing cameras with flashing blue lights at high-crime intersections.

The city has now linked more than 10,000 public and privately owned surveillance cameras in a system dubbed Operation Virtual Shield, according to a report published Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.

At least 1,250 of them are powerful enough to zoom in and read the text of a book.

So, consider that for a few minutes. You are typing e-mail on your lap at Grant Park, and now you have to worry about a camera over your shoulder watching what you type or where you surf. Or, let's say you are reading a book critical of the local Chicago government, and now they can identify you and place you on a list. That's how many of these politicians work. I know from experience.

The sophisticated system is also capable of automatically tracking people and vehicles out of the range of one camera and into another and searching for images of interest like an unattended package or a particular license plate.

"Given Chicago's history of unlawful political surveillance, including the notorious 'Red Squad,' it is critical that appropriate controls be put in place to rein in these powerful and pervasive surveillance cameras now available to law enforcement throughout the City," said Harvey Grossman, legal director of the ACLU of Illinois.

The Chicago police "Red Squad" program from the 1920s through the 1970s spied on and maintained dossiers about thousands of individuals and groups in an effort to find communists and other subversives.

As the state of Illinois is in a huge budget crisis and Chicago is having to tax nearly everything to keep up with its own operating costs, consider the price of this system. The city has spent $60 million to set up this spy network of cameras.