On Chicago streets, cameras are watching

The cameras may be about fighting gangs, drugs, and other urban crime, but many say it is the larger fears about terrorism that have created an environment where the balance has shifted away from civil liberties.

"It's definitely part and parcel of a climate of fear and heightened national security, which in one sense is understandable, but in another is open to abuse," says Andrew Ross, a New York University professor and cultural critic. The hastily passed Patriot Act and the proliferation of surveillance cameras are both signs we're moving too fast, he says. "It's much more difficult to dismantle these things than to put them in place."

But police and other proponents of the cameras say they're aware of the possibility for misuse - and that they've taken sufficient steps to guard against it. The International Association of Chiefs of Police has created policy guidelines on the use of technology and runs courses for law-enforcement officers.

"You don't have a presumption of privacy in public sections of the city," says John Firman, a researcher with the association. "If cameras are used with the right policies and procedures, privacy issues should never become a problem."

And within Chicago, police say the backdrop of growing crime is reason enough to use all available tools to fight it. The city has had 347 homicides so far this year and led the nation in murders through mid-July.

Englewood, where Wilson lives, is particularly bad. There have been 26 murders there this year, tying it for second among the city's 25 districts. Police there are overwhelmed. Weed-choked lots seem to outnumber businesses, and clerks in food and liquor stores work behind bullet-proof glass.

The Rev. Willard Payton, who grew up in Englewood and is currently the minister at the New Birth Church of God in Christ there, sees both sides of the surveillance-camera debate. He knows there's the potential for abuse with such technology. But he balances that against the realities of life in Englewood.

"Abandoned buildings, vacant lots, kids hanging on the corner, the obvious [criminal] activity in some areas," says Mr. Payton. "A blind man could see it."

He's also sensitive, though, to the civil rights issues. Sitting in his quiet sanctuary on a recent afternoon, wearing pressed brown slacks, a matching shirt, and an easy smile, Payton describes being pulled over a couple of times by the police. His guess: It was because he's black and was driving a nice car.

Still, he wouldn't mind seeing a camera go up if it would give residents in the church's neighboring senior housing a sense of security. "We recognize the potential problems that could develop, but I think they are outweighed by at least the sense of some kind of safety and security," he says.

He invites critics of the technology to visit the neighborhood.

"They need to come and spend a couple of months here, and not just one day. Just stand here and look out the window, look around, and they'll get a true feel of what's here."

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