Smart Cameras Blog

[From Chicago's Camera Network Is Everywhere - WSJ.com]

A good overview article of the current state of Chicago camera network. I was interviewed for the article. Couple of snippets:

While many police forces are boosting video monitoring, video-surveillance experts believe Chicago has gone further than any other U.S. city in merging computer and video technology to police the streets. The networked system is also unusual because of its scope and the integration of nonpolice cameras.

The city links the 1,500 cameras that police have placed in trouble spots with thousands more—police won’t say how many—that have been installed by other government agencies and the private sector in city buses, businesses, public schools, subway stations, housing projects and elsewhere. Even home owners can contribute camera feeds.

Rajiv Shah, an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago who has studied the issue, estimates that 15,000 cameras have been connected in what the city calls Operation Virtual Shield, its fiber-optic video-network loop.

Former U.S. Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff has called Chicago’s use of cameras “a model for the country.”

rshah Chicago