Chicago’s network of more than 10,000 public and private surveillance cameras has solved crimes, prevented police misconduct and made residents feel safe, Mayor Daley said Tuesday, rejecting the American Civil Liberties Union’s call for a moratorium on new cameras and strict controls on existing ones.
One day after the ACLU proposed reining in the Big Brother program, Daley talked about expanding it to prevent senior citizens living in high-crime neighborhoods from becoming prisoners in their homes.
“Don’t you think we should be concerned for seniors that someone is standing out there at 2 o’clock in the morning or 8 o’clock in the morning? A senior is going to church in the morning. Don’t you think that senior should be protected as he or she leaves a building or their home?” Daley said after ribbon-cutting ceremonies at a new senior citizens complex in Pilsen.
You know what protects the senior citizen? Cops on the streets. Or concealed weapons on the senior citizen. The ACLU is worried about abuses of the cameras and one of our regular e-mailers from the west side tells us that Penny's Pod Room isn't allowing regular citizens in to view cameras until they undergo training on Fourth Amendment issues as we do. Seems only reasonable.
What worries us is the ACLU taking a very close interest in anything to do with the Pods. We figure it's only a matter of time before they file some sort of lawsuit against the Department over camera usage and some copper who was only trying to generate activity for some mission is dragged into Federal court and finds his house is on the line for civil rights violations.