Stop Looking At Me Like That
On Sunday night, Devyn Caldwell (Looper) and Michael Doyle (Chicago Carless) were out taking photos downtown, as they do, and noticed that security cameras had been installed on top of the Plensa “face” fountains in Millennium Park. Caldwell sent an email to the Trib’s architecture critic, Blair Kamin, and was talking to a Trib reporter on the phone within minutes. The Tribune published an article about the ‘temporary’ cameras Tuesday morning and the cameras were removed during the day on Tuesday. It’s kind of heartening when a combination of citizen outcry and media attention actually changes something in the city.
(photo by Looper)
One thing though. What if those public sculptures get vandalized. The security camera could have caught the culprits on tape.
A) They’re planning on putting up cameras on a pole (“A permanent camera will go on a pole west of the fountains next summer, roughly where speed chess players set up their table on the sidewalk at Monroe Street and Michigan Avenue, said Millennium Park spokeswoman Karen Ryan.”) and I have to say that I think that, even as a temporary measure, putting cameras right on the sculpture was pretty tacky. B) There’s pretty murky evidence that video surveillance has any real effect on crime — either as a deterrent or to catch criminals. There’s a reason hoodys are so popular :-) “In the seven weeks that they’ve been deployed, Washington, D.C.’s 48 new surveillance cameras have not helped to solve any cases, according to D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey.” — http://www.epic.org/privacy/surveillance/