In the March 2009 edition of Chicago Magazine, a cover story asked "Can Cameras Replace Cops?" In a detailed story exploring the skyrocketing use of technology in the police world, reporter Noah Isackson mixed diverse perspectives, factual details, and identifiable trends to examine the issue and impact of cameras and police work in Chicago.
In response to Isackson's report, On the Job author Daniel P. Smith penned a Letter to the Editor, which appeared in the May 2009 edition of the magazine. Here is Smith's response in its entirety:
Losing the Chicago Way
Noah Isackson’s March story “Can Cameras Replace Cops?” highlighted a disturbing trend: the sharp movement away from human intelligence and community-based policing.
While technology has its place and certainly its prospects, it cannot and should not overtake the mix of officer acumen and community help in disrupting crime. If we wanted to know the tangible cost of a safe city, Superintendent Jody Weis provided it with his recent budget cuts to CAPS: $5.3 million, a 41 percent drop from 2000.
While CAPS is not perfect, it has been lauded across the country and copied by departments big and small for one simple reason—a proven track record. CAPS does not shy away from a hands-on, personal approach that plants the seeds of prevention and community support, essential elements to the city’s success in battling crime.
Loyola University criminologist Arthur Lurigio is right—“You need a big toolbox to be effective in a big, complicated city like Chicago,” he said—and Supt. Weis has made the department’s biggest sledge hammer a soft-faced mallet with his truncated investment in CAPS.
With the department’s slashing of a key program, limited police manpower, the perceived lack of leadership support, and the addition of cameras to squad cars, Chicago is slowly becoming what many retired and veteran city police officers feared most: cops afraid to do anything.
And that’s certainly not the Chicago Way.
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