Surveillance, Security, and Intelligence-Led Policing in Chicago

This chapter summarizes the Chicago Police Department’s adoption of Intelligence-Led Policing (ILP) since the early-2000s as a crime prevention and deterrence strategy. It reviews the use of technology such as police observation devices (cameras), the centralization of the Police Department’s data operations at the Crime Prevention and Information Center, a sophisticated data analytics “fusion center,” and examines changing technologies of surveillance used by the police. The authors discuss the integration of police surveillance with privately-owned and operated camera systems, and explore how systems like facial and license plate recognition software and gunshot prediction technologies are reshaping security and policing in Chicago. The chapter also assesses concerns about privacy and eroded civil rights provoked by the expanding use of ILP techniques and data.