ROGERS PARK — Jerry Wallace has had enough.
The Willye B. White field house supervisor started working in the neighborhood six months ago, and the constant loitering and violence pushed him to ask Chicago Police and Ald. Joe Moore (49th) for security cameras.
Two male teens were shot on the basketball courts behind the field house in October.
"The basketball court is a perfect location for crime," Wallace said. "It is a haven for illegal activity."
Wallace said the alderman's office and police district are on board with him to install the cameras, but who exactly will pay for them still had to be worked out among city departments and offices.
The supervisor said he wants to cover all angles of the building to thwart the "huge drug market" surrounding the city's newest field house, which hosts sports, arts and music programs for neighborhood children.
The field house, at 1610 W. Howard St., isn't too far from Morse Gyros on West Morse Avenue. The owner of the restaurant, Faisal Dossa, installed several security cameras around the business earlier in the year after he got tired of loitering and drug activity.
Dossa and community policing advocates said it worked.
"That whole corner entirely quieted down," said John Warner, the community policing facilitator for the area.