Security Cameras for Chicago Schools

Pilot program showed 59% decrease in misconduct

Despite a large budget deficit, Chicago Public Schools plans to spend $7 million to install security cameras at more than a dozen of its schools.

CHICAGO (WLS) July 27, 2011 -- Chicago Public Schools plans to spend $7 million to install security cameras at schools with the most security issues. Eighty security cameras are being installed in 14 troubled high schools.

The cameras beam images directly to the Chicago Police Department and those images could be viewed by the nearest police station, Chicago Public Schools, the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, and by officials on their cell phones.

Three schools, including Fenger High School, served as pilot sites for the program. In 2009, Fenger High School honor student Derrion Albert was beaten to death. Fenger now has more than three dozen high-tech security cameras both inside and outside the school building. Since they were installed, the cameras are credited with a 79-percent drop in arrests, a 59-percent decrease in misconduct as well as an increase in standardized tests scores.

Link to full story: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8269768