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Corrupt Government Title: Chicago links school cameras to 911 center More than 4,500 cameras in Chicago public schools are being connected to police headquarters and the city's 911 center in a technological upgrade designed to improve safety, officials said Thursday. In an emergency, arriving officers also will be able to view real-time images from the cameras on screens in their squad cars. "The key is getting the information to the police officer in that car," said Mayor Richard Daley. Cameras belonging to the Chicago Transit Authority and other public agencies have been linked to the city's 911 center, and devices in some public buildings also have been connected as Daley seeks to consolidate video surveillance. The mayor, who made the announcement at a news conference Thursday at police headquarters, said that when the school camera program is completed in the next few months, Chicago "will have a comprehensive school security system that will make it far easier for us to respond more quickly and effectively to any emergency at a school building." Cameras are installed at about 200 of Chicago's 650 public schools, including all high schools and some administrative buildings. Until now, they have been monitored only at the Board of Education's central office. The city is using $418,000 in federal Homeland Security funding to make the new connections. "Many of the schools have different types of systems," said Cmdr. Jonathan Lewin, the Police Department's technology chief. "Schools are of varying ages. Some have systems over 10 years old ... That all had to be integrated together to a common platform." Routine monitoring will occur on cameras mounted outside buildings, with viewing of images from cameras inside the schools only during emergencies, Daley said. The mayor acknowledged the cameras provide only limited security, citing a spate of shootings in recent days that have claimed young victims during after-school hours. Back at City Hall on Thursday, angry aldermen complained to Daley administration officials that bureaucratic snafus and foot-dragging have affected Police Department staffing. Fifty police recruits who were told by the department to prepare to begin training on Feb. 19 instead won't start classes until May 19. And 50 veteran officers who were supposed to be freed from office jobs to street duty still are behind desks because civilians have not yet been hired to take their places, aldermen said at a meeting of the council's Police and Fire Committee. Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th), committee chairman, blamed the city Budget Department. "It appears the budget office for some reason decided to slow down hiring," he said. "You had young recruits who thought they were being hired ... and they showed up and then were told literally to just go home and weren't even told when to come back. That's unfortunate." Meanwhile a "bureaucratic maze" is "preventing civilians from being hired for those administrative jobs," Carothers said.
Poster Comment: This is such a stupid idea. We don't need politicians with cameras watching our kids. They probably want them in the bathroom too. Fucking perverts. How about instead we put cameras up the politicians ass. How about cameras in the mayors office so we can make sure the cock sucker isn't taking bribes or screwing the secretary. That is a much better idea.
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