Chicago businesses may soon be required to install CCTV

Feb 21, 2006 2:49 PM

           

Licensed businesses that are open for more than 12 hours a day would be required to install security cameras in their stores and parking lots under a proposal by Chicago safety officials.
Law enforcement and emergency-management officials voiced support for the proposal last week at a meeting of the City Council's license committee, while opponents said it would add to the already high cost of doing business in the city, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Hundreds of stores, restaurants, bars and gas stations would be required to install cameras under the measure. Offices, apartment buildings and condominiums managed by companies holding city business licenses would also be forced to put up cameras, but factories and warehouses would be exempt.
"This is not intended to punish anyone," says Alderman Ray Suarez, a sponsor of the measure. "We are talking about public safety."
Cameras have been responsible in part for declining number of murders in Chicago, according to law enforcement officials. A sophisticated network of cameras transmits images from high-crime areas to the city's emergency response center.
Police Deputy Chief Michael McCotter said cameras are "an excellent tool as far as crime prevention."
"My concern is the little guy who has a lot of regulatory burdens already," says Alderman Joe Moore. "This should be a decision left to the individual business owner."
The president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Gerald Roper, estimated it would cost about $5,000 to equip a small store with cameras. "With crime going down, all of us bragging about crime going down, when this kind of ordinance gets introduced, it sort of blew our mind," Roper told the newspaper. "We think it is one more imposition on business."
The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Chicagoland Apartment Association and the Illinois Restaurant Association have voiced formal opposition to the proposal.

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