The Evanston City Council voted Monday to approve a contract to install surveillance cameras in South, West and Downtown Evanston.

The contract was approved in a 7-2 vote, with Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste (2nd) and Ald. Judy Fiske (1st) dissenting.

Jean-Baptiste said he didn’t think surveillance was the right approach to curb crime and the installation of more cameras would be a step toward complete surveillance of the city.Fiske agreed with Jean-Baptiste and, echoing the concerns of Evanston resident Richard Katz, who spoke against the cameras in public comments, added the surveillance cameras would make some areas of the town seem unsafe.

“I’m concerned about the perception these cameras would give,” Fiske said. “I feel like it’s very safe, but I am a little bit more concerned about whether cameras at intersections actually will provide the kind of security we’re anticipating or if people will just avoid those intersections if they have crime on their minds.”

Ald. Don Wilson (4th), however, said the cameras would not negatively affect people’s perception of the city.

“I don’t think the cameras will make people think the city is unsafe,” Wilson said. “It’s just a tool for assisting with our public safety.”

Ald. Ann Rainey (8th) defended the cameras, pointing out crime plummeted along Howard Street after the city installed surveillance cameras years ago. But she added she wasn’t sure if the relationship between the cameras and decline in crime was causal.

Police will not be continuously surveilling with the cameras, Evanston police chief Richard Eddington said. Rather, they will refer to the cameras’ footage only if they receive a 9-1-1 call about a crime occurring in an area under surveillance.

The police have yet to decide precisely where the cameras will be, but they have identified general zones considered “blind spots,” Eddington said. Among these zones are a section of Downtown Evanston, West Evanston and South Evanston.

These zones see more crime than other areas of the city, according to police crime maps.Eddington urged aldermen to OK the cameras, warning the city will not always have the means to implement them. Two federal grants the city has won will completely cover the cost of the cameras, their installation, and service for three years.

“If we don’t build that infrastructure now, we’re not going to have the resources to do this in the future,” Eddington said.

Eddington argued the cameras were necessary because the cameras do a job the city doesn’t have the money to pay additional police officers to do-deterring crime.

CENSUS

Lucile Krasnow, special assistant for community relations at NU, gave the council an update on the census on campus, saying that so far, census counting has been a success.

Krasnow said more than 95 percent of all residence halls, fraternities and sororities have been counted, which was met with claps and congratulatory calls from the council.

“I want to applaud ASG at Northwestern,” Krasnow said. “ASG was the vehicle that put out all of PR, and we think they’ve done a fantastic job.”

WATER WEEK

At the beginning of the meeting, Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl said she proclaimed the week of May 2 through May 8 to be Water Week in Evanston, signaling the beginning of Evanston’s campaign to consume more tap water instead of bottled water.

The city gave each council member a refillable water bottle in anticipation of the week.[email protected]