Correction appended.
Although the Monday decision by the Evanston City Council to install 15 new security cameras throughout the city has some aldermen concerned about too much surveillance, University Police Deputy Chief Dan McAleer says the cameras already in place at Northwestern have only aided campus security.
NU has installed more than 220 cameras on campus, including at least one at the entrance of every residential building and throughout the Welsh Ryan and Ryan Field arena, McAleer said. The cameras have helped the department identify criminals and collect evidence against them, he said.
“We’ve had incidents where subjects have entered residence halls and gone upstairs into sleeping quarters,” McAleer said. “Because of the cameras, we’ve been able to identify offenders we’ve previously arrested for trespassing and we’re able to prosecute them for those sorts of incidents.”
McAleer said the cameras on NU’s campus are used in the same way the Evanston Police Department plans to use their new cameras. When the department receives a 9-1-1 call, they call up a camera in the area from the dispatch center to generate a review of the incident.
“If we get a disturbance call, we’ll call the nearest camera and see how bad the situation is so we know how many officers we need to dispatch,” McAleer said.
Although the exact locations for the city’s new cameras have not yet been determined, Evanston Police Chief Richard Eddington said the EPD will work with the successful bidder to finalize the locations and maximize security coverage. Eddington said the Evanston cameras will not be monitored constantly because the department does not have sufficient personnel.
The new camera contract was approved in a 7-2 City Council vote Monday. One of the two dissenting aldermen was Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste (2nd), who said relying on technology in this instance is the wrong approach.
“We’re moving away from working to shape behavior and now we’re working to have technology do the things that we should be doing,” Jean-Baptiste said. “It means we are abdicating certain responsibilities we have. We should engage in different tactics in order to try to change the behavior of members in the community.”
But Eddington said the cameras are becoming increasingly necessary in the changing technological age.
“It’s the expectation of judges, juries and prosecutors now,” he said. “(They ask:) ‘Do you have a recording of the incident? How good is the recording? Can we recognize people in the recording?’ All of these things are part of the reason we’re going this way.”
Eddington also noted that since the city installed cameras in Evanston’s Brummel Park area several years ago, the area had a double-digit reduction in calls for service. He added that Evanston isn’t the only city taking steps to update its security system.
“This is an ongoing effort by many municipalities to maximize security through technology,” Eddington said.
McAleer said because the cameras on NU’s campus have been helpful, he thinks the additional cameras in the city will have the same effect.
“I think they will help NU students, too,” McAleer said. “They serve as a deterrent as far as criminal activity is concerned. I think if you’re going to commit crimes and there’s a camera there, you think twice about doing it.”
The original version of this article incorrectly stated that UP has cameras installed at the entrance of every educational facility. Some educational facilities do have cameras, but they were not necessariy installed by UP. The article has been corrected. The DAILY regrets the error.
