Mayor’s Proposal Would Add 3.7 Miles of Surveillance Cameras in Evanston

Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl is recommending that the city add a total of 3.7 miles of surveillance cameras along Church Street and Dodge Avenue.

After a resolution to create a “safe school zone” and extend policing powers around Evanston Township High School failed to pass city council, Tisdahl’s proposal is designed to provide an alternative measure to enhance safety for children walking to and from the high school. 

Speaking before city council members Monday, Tisdahl said that students would have fights on school grounds or across the street if they wanted it to be stopped, but if they didn’t want police or school security officers to step in, they would move the fight a few blocks from the high school. 

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“I certainly think we owe our students a safe route in and out of high school,” she said. 

Under the mayor’s proposal, police would add surveillance cameras along the entire 2.5-mile stretch of Dodge Avenue from Simpson to Howard streets, and along a 1.2-mile stretch of Church Street from city limits at McCormick Boulevard to Ridge Avenue. Cameras would stop at Ridge because there are so many private security cameras downtown that adding more would be unecessary, according to Tisdahl.

In addition the new cameras proposed, police already operate numerous surveillance cameras throughout the city, including a handful near the high school, according to Police Chief Richard Eddington, who spoke at Monday’s meeting. 

“This is a continuation of what we’re already doing, so it’s not new territory, so to speak,” Eddington told city council members. 

The new cameras would look like extra-large smoke detectors, rather than the boxy versions first installed in Evanston, he said. Like the city’s existing cameras, police will use them in real-time to decide how many cars to send to a disturbance, or after the fact to review footage at the scene of a crime and determine what happened. 

Eddington showed council members examples of camera footage that had been used to help prove a victim’s story about being stabbed on Howard Street, and footage of a pedestrian being struck by a vehicle at Church Street and Benson Avenue.

“With this digital evidence, it’s easier for us to tell a story and do what we need to do in court,” he said. 

Asked whether police monitor the cameras 24/7, Eddington explained that doing so was impossible given the number of cameras and the financial resources of the police department. Additionally, he said, there’s no criminal activity to see the vast majority of time.

The city’s current cameras do not provide a view into anyone’s home windows—and doing so is not the point, anyway, Eddington explained. 

“That’s not what we’re asking for,” he said. “Our concern is the public way.”

He also invited residents who to come see the cameras in action at the police station, by calling 847-866-5005 or e-mailing reddington@cityofevanston.org.

Speaking at Monday night’s city council meeting, a handful of residents said they had concerns about the proposed cameras. 

“There is no debate about your sincerity or the sincerity of this proposal and its intent to keep our children safe,” said Evanston resident Dickelle Fonda. “We all want that. How we do that, I think, is debatable, and I think this proposal is debatable.” 

Fonda said she had several questions about how effective cameras would be, and asked for statistics on violent crime in the area where cameras are proposed and academic research on the effects of security cameras. 

“Why the rush to create a surveillance zone all the way down these two main arteries in the city?” she said. 

Fonda also asked whether cameras might simply push crime to the surrounding streets, as criminals changed their routes in order to evade detection. 

Responding to that concern, Mayor Tisdahl said it might actually be a good thing if criminals changed their routes, since it would give students a designated safe route to school. She also said that she had talked with residents in the 2000 block of Dodge Avenue on Sunday—one day after Floyd Gibert, 30, was shot and killed on the street—and that they were “universally supportive” of cameras. 

“Living as close to Dodge as they do, they were very concerned that children have a safe route,” she said. 

Fellow Evanston resident Emma Garl Smith said she wondered whether the cameras would have any effect at all.

Smith cited a study conducted on San Francisco’s installation of surveillance cameras in high-crime areas, which showed that cameras failed to reduce violent crime, according to SFGate. The cameras did, however, reduce the incidence of burglary, pickpocketing and purse-snatching, SFGate reports. 

“Are the kids really safe, in terms of the Evanston community and where we’re planning on putting the cameras?” she said.

Police Chief Eddington, however, cited a study by the Urban Institute, among others, that showed that installation of surveillance cameras in Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., was a cost-effective way to reduce crime, including violent crime. 

“Cameras aren’t a silver bullet,” he said. “They are excellent technology. The nice thing about technology is it doesn’t go on vacation, doesn’t take shift days, there’s no shift change. It’s always there.”

Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl held a meeting with residents to discuss the proposed camera installations on Tuesday, Dec. 10, at the Levy Center, and a second meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 18, at Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center, 1655 Foster St.