Monday, May 11, 2009

New Police Camera At Sheridan & Winona




If you live near Sheridan and Winona, you might have noticed that you now have a police camera in your neck of the woods. Now, if we could just get a camera about 7 blocks south of there...

13 comments:

  1. Seriously! Is that corner nearly as bad as Lawrence & Sheridan? Who decides where these go...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think these cameras do help prevent crime specially when one occures in it view and can be played back to capture what its captured view shows. I hope they place more and hope someone on the other end is really looking...........

    ReplyDelete
  3. seems like crimes will move about 7 blocks from this area, nice.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Alderman's office has been promising to put this camera on this corner for almost 2 years and it looks like it finally has happened. There is a lot of drug dealing and crime occuring at the Sheridan/Winona plaza and currency exchange. The "drug alley" is from Sheridan on Winona, down Winona to Winthtop. There is a turf war between the Latin Kings and the P-Stones and the police are monitoring this corridor through the police camera on Winthrop, private sector cameras at Kenmore, down to the third camera, the new police camera at now Sheridan.

    These cameras are monitored during special missions; but mostly when you call 911 from this area to report a crime. The OEMC will pull up the images and monitor it until a police squad shows up. You cannot prosecute until you have the evidence. Hopefully these cameras are catching the evidence needed to pull these gang members to JAIL.

    I also agree Sheridan and Lawrence ALSO needs a camera at that corner.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cameras are needed here. My roommate saw 4 people smoking crack in our alley at winona and kenmore at 6pm during a week day last week. Broad daylight. Didn't flinch when he got out his phone to call 911. And there's a school down the street, and more often then not, if I am walking past this little strip mall, I am most likely to get harrassed. A camera is warrented at this intersection. How did the safety meeting go BTW?

    ReplyDelete
  6. The safety meeting was OK. I found it constructive for the mere fact that Greg Harris is taking an active role in community safety. He seems willing to coordinate an approach to public safety where his Illinois Assembly district overlaps multiple Chicago wards.

    Heather Steans is also improving on this issue in similar ways to Greg.

    Mary Anne Smith's office was great. They put on a presentation with a projector to show Action Uptown.
    http://www.actionuptown.com/
    They put a spotlight on addressing drug crime by emphasizing how much of the trade is facilitated by a small number of buildings that provide a warming shelter, safe passage, and a storage facility for narcotics, weapons, and rested bodies. They did not talk so much about which buildings are in question, but this is detailed information that residents should certainly inquire about. Get this info talked up in CAPS meetings.

    Ms. Smith was not in attendance. Neither was Helen Shiller. Mikayla, an aide to Shiller, was in attendance. She made some brief comments at the open about a building management company being run out of the ward for failure to maintain and enforce proper code for their operating license.

    I thought the best part of the evening was the back and forth between the audience and the representatives from the Cook County State's Attorney Office. It started with questions about car theft in Uptown and how these cases almost always are prosecuted where the automobile is recovered and ignore where the theft originates. It created the opening to talk about the antiquated public records access the Cook County State's Attorney Office, the Cook County Clerk of the Court's Office, and the Cook County Court System maintains. On Everyblock.com you can find case numbers for the reported incidents, but when you want to review the cases you have only two locations with a limited number of access terminals and limited hours to access them and you are competing with a line of other citizens waiting to use the same terminals.

    This is an open records issue nearly identical to the Sunlight TIF Ordinance. There are barriers between the public and the public's records that should be torn down. To think one cannot walk into a Chicago Public Library branch and browse week old police and court records appears to be a major loss to the community. The resources one must expend to collect this information and then share it with their neighbors is high. We could have a structure that is so much better, lowers costs, and provides yet another lever the public can use as a check and balance on public officials.

    For a live blogging of the meeting last night, Yo's tweets are a great read.
    http://is.gd/zaQO

    ReplyDelete
  7. ugh - everytime they put one of these in it bothers me. what we need is beat cops to deter crime not cameras - that may or may not even be on or manned - to record it after the fact.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ken----thanks for the info. Is this a new camera or an additional camera in the area?

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Sheridan/Winona camera is a new additional camera to the area. There are multiple blue light cameras in this area and this new camera is an additional.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Maybe they should put one on the post in front of Shillers office to keep a eye on what she does all day or should I say don`t do all day..............

    ReplyDelete
  11. These cameras do no good at all! I live at the corner where one is located and I have had to call 911 three times in one month about crimes happening in view of the camera. The police even called me back to ask if I got a liscene plate number. Can't they look at the camera tapes and find out for themselves? In one instance of calling about gun fire and screams of pain after the shots it took the police over 5 minutes to respond and then they were casually driving down the street. Stop wasting money on the cameras and hire more police to patrol.

    ReplyDelete
  12. It's my understanding is that the Police Department supports these cameras because thy have proof they work. I agree for more police but with our troubled deficit spending (thanks to all the many TIFs), we're forced to look for cheaper alternatives. At Magnilia & Wilson, these cameras made a huge difference. When the camera was taken away, problems got worse. When it returned, it got better. It's not the total answer, but it's better than nothing for now.

    ReplyDelete