CHICAGO — The future is here. Chicago has long utilized blue-light surveillance cameras to monitor high-crime neighborhoods, but now plans are in place to implement “covert” cameras as well.
With crime a concern of many around the city, police are taking steps to go beyond the norm when it comes to surveillance. Overt cameras are now a thing of the past.
“They are incredibly small. I’ve seen some that would fit inside of a match box. . . . These can be secreted in locations that nobody would ever detect. It’s amazing where we’re going with technology,” Police Supt. Jody Weis said to the Sun-Times.
While blue light cameras still help to prevent crime and catch criminals, Ralph Thomas, operator of The Spy And Private-Eye Museum in Austin, Texas, said that these cameras are catching on all throughout the country.
“It is becoming more and more prevalent,” Thomas said. “A couple years ago, the technology wasn’t there. But now it is. Law enforcement agencies are going to utilize it. It’s another crime-fighting tool.”
While this technology is becoming more widely used by police, covert surveillance and crime scene surveillance has been in use since the assassination of President Lincoln. The FBI has crime scene photos taken just shortly after Lincoln was shot.
“Surveillance has been in use since the inception of photographer,” Thomas said. “And covert surveillance has been used since the video camera [was invented].”
Part of the goal for these covert match box cameras is to prevent criminals from knowing exactly where these cameras are located.
“We put some here; we move it around; we run the operation,” Weis said. “We arrest a lot of bad guys. Then we see where there’s another uptick, and we move ’em somewhere else. It’s kind of like mobile pods, but they’re covert. The bad guys will never know they’re being watched.”
Thomas agrees with Weis’ sentiment.
“Criminals know where overt cameras are. That’s why there is a need for covert cameras,” Thomas said.
