CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Following a mass shooting outside a restaurant over the summer and the killing of a retired fire lieutenant on-the-street this winter, Chicago police are adding new higher-tech surveillance cameras to three neighborhoods on the Southwest Side.
19th Ward Ald. Matt O’Shea said until this week there were 10 PODs or Police Observation Devices (cameras) and one LPR (license plate reader) in the ward. Over the next several weeks, he said, 13 more cameras will be added to the Beverly, Morgan Park, and Mt. Greenwood neighborhoods.
"Crime is up. People are scared and we need to do more to partner [with] and support the police to stop these horrible crimes from happening," Ald. O'Shea said.
Alderman O’Shea said cameras have proven to help police solve crimes and make neighborhoods safer. He said four people were eventually arrested and charged in the December killing of retired Fire Lt. Dwain Williams, in large part, because there had been cameras on the outside of the business Williams had just exited on 118th and Western.
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The alderman said the cameras include the latest technology.
"One of these POD cameras, from two blocks away, can read a license plate, from two blocks away can identify someone in a car, what they’re wearing, so it’s an extremely valuable tool for the Chicago Police Department," he said
And, make no mistake, O'Shea said, police need as many tools as possible to solve crimes.
"We need to provide more tools to law enforcement to assist them in finding these perpetrators and making sure justice is served," he said.
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Besides the killing of Dwain Williams, the other high-profile shooting in the 19th Ward happened in late August when one person was killed and four people were wounded when gunmen pulled up to the Lume's Pancake House on 116th and Western and began shooting. The person killed was 31-year-old Devon Welsh, who police say, had been targeted by the shooters.