DRUG DEAL CAUGHT ON CAMERA BY 911 CENTER MONITOR

People rush around on lunch hours, stand at bus stops, hurry across city
streets.

It's about noon Thursday, and everyday life is unfolding all over Chicago.

And the police are watching.

Since 2003, when the city first introduced street-corner cameras to monitor
criminal activity, the use of such technology has been expanding. Two
months ago, the city's emergency communications center was wired into
cameras all over the city, allowing staff there to watch everything from a
plane landing at Midway Airport to traffic on Lake Shore Drive to a drug
deal on the West Side.

On Thursday, officials announced the first arrest since the center started
monitoring cameras.

Three people were picked up on drug offenses Feb. 9 after Chicago Police
Sgt. Gregory Hoffman, inside a dimmed room at the city's communications
center at Madison and Loomis, watched as drugs were sold 40 blocks west at
Kostner and Madison. He called the Harrison District to report the deal,
and 20 minutes later watched tactical officers swoop in to arrest three people.

'The Future Of Policing'

City officials showed footage of the arrests on the same day Chicago Police
Supt. Phil Cline was in Miami highlighting the city's use of the cameras --
by showing the same footage -- at a national meeting for the Office of
National Drug Control Policy.

"They represent the future of policing," said Ron Huberman, executive
director of the Office of Emergency Management.

Officers involved in the arrests also said they believed the technology
expanded policing ability.

"Each camera is the eyes or four to five officers," said Sgt. Michael J.
Stack, who noted the cameras can zoom in from a block away. "You can see
faces. You can read lips."

2,000 Cameras On The Lookout

The three people arrested on Feb. 9 were [Name redacted], 42, of Maywood,
who was charged with delivery of a controlled substance, and [Name
redacted], 46, and [Name redacted], 49, both of West Chicago, who were
charged with possession of a controlled substance.

Huberman said footage from the cameras is kept for three days unless a
crime is captured on tape or a police officer requests the footage be
preserved for an investigation.

There are about 30 cameras with flashing blue lights in place on
drug-infested corners, and the 911 center also is linked to 2,000 more
surveillance cameras around the city.