Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently signed into law a bill that will increase the number of security cameras along expressways in Cook County.
The Tamara Clayton Expressway Camera Act was signed July 12. It honors a woman who was fatally shot in February while driving to work on Interstate 57 near Oak Forest.
It instructs the Illinois State Police, Illinois Department of Transportation and Illinois State Toll Highway Authority to work together to create a camera program for the investigation of expressway shootings. Details of the program, which will be funded by IDOT’s Road Fund, are still being worked out, says a news report.
The Illinois Department of Transportation currently operates around 275 cameras in the Chicago-area, primarily on the expressway system, for “traffic management purposes,” says the news report, quoting spokesman Guy Tridgell.
The department’s cameras do not record footage “due to funding constraints and system capabilities,” but rather send a live feed to their communications center in Schaumburg, where traffic conditions are monitored, it said.
The law takes effect next year.
