In some security ways, Chicago has not been at the leading edge. It dragged its authorities-with-jurisdiction feet on integrating life safety and security. It still doesn’t permit PVC. Grandfathering is a Chicago way of life. But when it comes to emergency preparedness, use of security cameras, incident reporting and grabbing federal homeland security dollars, there’s no one better than Mayor Richie Daley.
He built an impressive 911 Center. He established a high tech emergency command center. He’s networking more than 2,000 security cameras at government buildings, transportation sites, schools and even some corporate locations like Boeing. He has pole-mounted outdoor police security cameras in tough neighborhoods; experimented with “gun shot” sensors tied to the cameras; is pushing a migration to intelligent video; and he just loves red light cameras as much for the automated revenue generation as for the safety factor.