Owning and operating a successful business is expensive and difficult — any entrepreneur in Blacksburg knows this all too well.
While the going may be tough for business owners here in the New River Valley, it’s a different story in big cities such as Chicago, where issues such as security take higher precedence.
For bar owners in particular, public safety and security are very important matters, since a few too many drinks can turn a relatively peaceful night into a scene from “Fight Club.”
That said, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has proposed a citywide ordinance that would require bars and nightclubs open until 4 a.m. to install security cameras capable of identifying patrons as they enter and leave the establishment.
How much protection is too much, especially considering that most bars personally hire their own security detail, and some already have cameras installed inside to monitor crowd activity?
A security camera on the street watching the front door of a bar in Chicago is an extremely ineffective way to prevent crimes from occurring. The same can be said for any outdoor surveillance camera in any city anywhere in the world — cameras don’t make good crime deterrents.
What cameras are good for are helping police solve crimes after they happen; this makes them invaluable as investigative tools. However, they don’t do much in the way of improving overall public safety. It’s foolish for Mayor Daley to think he can make Chicago’s bars safer just by forcing these cameras on them.
In fact, it’s a complete waste of time and money for bar owners to install entryway cameras when they already no doubt have some security measures in place. These measures take the form of everything from the little camera you see above the cash register to the 7-foot, 350-pound ex-NFL lineman who greets you at the door.
Mayor Daley’s ordinance makes the incorrect assumption that all bars are dens of evil, corruption and debauchery and thus require publicly-enforced security standards to remain in check. In reality, most bars are well-oiled, self-sufficient private operations that need little help from the government to achieve their goal: turning a profit.
That goal will be undermined if Chicago forces its bar owners to put up cameras that they certainly don’t need and absolutely don’t want. The upkeep problems alone of hiring personnel to monitor the video feed all night long, replace the camera when it breaks or install a new one when someone rips it off its wall-mounting in a drunken rage are reasons enough to oppose the proposed ordinance.
The responsibility of ensuring overall public well being falls to the police, not private entrepreneurs. If Chicago wants people to install cameras outside their property in the name of public safety, the government should pay for the technology itself.
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