Chicago police are constantly monitoring their multi-million dollar surveillance cameras to bust black people drinking beer in brown paper bags on the street, as part of a tactic to remind the city's ethnic neighborhoods that they live in a panopticon, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

In contrast, San Francisco's budding network of 248 surveillance cameras is not monitored until after a crime has been reported.

Earl Gardner lounged on the street near his home just west of downtown Chicago, a 24-ounce can of Crazy Stallion beer in his hand. A mile away, police Officer Al Garbauski slid a computer mouse to maneuver a camera that was perched a block from Gardner. Zooming in tight, Garbauski saw malt liquor meet mouth and sent an officer to arrest Gardner for drinking in public. "I didn't appreciate it, not one bit," the 55-year-old Gardner said the other day. "The liquor store was closed when I got out (of custody)." It might seem like a steep expenditure of police resources for a small-time arrest, but Chicago authorities say busts like this serve a higher purpose. They let everyone know that police are watching as the city's 560 anti-crime cameras look in on the toughest street corners, a strategy intended to deter small-time and big-time crime alike.

Cameras survey Chicago's toughest blocks, but do they reduce crime? San Francisco Chronicle

Photo: Lance Iverson, San Francisco Chronicle