GOLD COAST — Last week's murder near the Clark and Division Red Line station has led the neighborhood alderman to install a new camera near the scene of the crime.
Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) said the new 360-degree camera will be installed within "a few weeks" at LaSalle and Division streets.
The move comes less than 10 days after Larry Lawrence, 27, was shot and killed near the train station following what police described as a "fight over drugs."
Hopkins, who's spending $27,000 out of his ward infrastructure budget for the new camera, said the corner has long been a problem area where drug dealers and users hop off the Red Line to congregate. He hopes more cameras will deter that activity.
"There are some blind spots," Hopkins said.
A camera installed last year at Clark and Division streets helped identify the shooting suspect, who remains at large.
Hopkins has also requested the Chicago Transit Authority install new cameras at the entrances of the Clark and Division Red Line stop, saying more surveillance near the Chicago Red Line station has curbed "criminal activity" near there.
The CTA "understands the gravity of the situation," Hopkins said.
The transit agency installed new cameras within the station when it was reconstructed last year, and has been "communicating with the alderman about our camera network and its coverage of CTA property," Catherine Hosinski, a CTA spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.
Hopkins is also asking nearby buildings, including the Mark Twain Hotel and the CVS pharmacy where Lawrence was shot, to add more cameras. Those negotiations are "going well," Hopkins said.
A representative of the hotel, 111 W. Division St., and a manager at the CVS, 1165 N. Clark St., declined to comment.
"This is a community effort," Hopkins said. "This isn’t something city government or police can solve on their own, we need the involvement of the neighborhood."
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