Homeland Security Program Riddled With Problems

CBS 2 Chicago
October 31, 2008

It’s called Project Shield and will cost you more than $40 million when it’s done, leaving U.S. taxpayers footing the bill for a countywide high-tech surveillance program. So why is the homeland security project busted?

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

Police sources told CBS 2′s Dave Savini that taxpayers got ripped off and that all the cameras and software in the world are meaningless if they don’t work.

CBS 2 Investigators sifted through government contracts and confidential emails revealing how Project Shield’s pot of money was dished out. The trail led to bankrupt companies, phony addresses and falsified documents — not the words you want to hear when talking about terrorism and your tax dollars.

Project Shield continues to be touted as a state-of-the-art video surveillance system. Federal tax dollars paid for it to be installed in squad cars and on towers throughout Cook County.

“It’s a waste of taxpayer money,” said East Hazel Crest Police Chief Ray Robertson. “I can’t get it to work on a daily basis.”

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