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  "path": "/wbez-newsletter/2026/05/12/the-rundown-the-countys-proposed-facial-recognition-tech",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-12T20:45:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.wbez.org",
  "textContent": "<p><i>Good afternoon! It’s Tuesday, and I’m intrigued by </i><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/movies/the-sheep-detectives-review.html?unlocked_article_code=1.h1A.bMwL.W9nHcNSEWZ1e&smid=url-share\" target=\"_blank\" ><i><u>this movie</u></i></a><i> featuring a flock of sheep solving a murder. Here’s what you need to know today.</i></p><p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/criminal-justice/2026/05/12/cook-county-jail-ai-briefcam-chicago-crime\" target=\"_blank\" ><b><u>1. Cook County Jail could get a $1.1 million AI-powered surveillance system</u></b></a></p><p>A coalition of community and advocacy groups is urging the Cook County Board of Commissioners to reject a proposed contract to use artificial intelligence-powered surveillance technology at the county jail, arguing officials should first address the number of deaths at the facility.</p><p>In a letter to commissioners, the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice and 80 community, faith and policy organizations framed the conditions at the Cook County Jail as a “human rights crisis.” They urged the officials to delay a vote on a three-year contract with BriefCam until a review of the jail is completed.</p><p>Nine people died there last year, according to the Cook County sheriff’s office. Among them was Martinez Duncan, whose death was ruled a homicide by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.</p><p>A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told WBEZ the jail generates more than 1.8 million hours of video footage a month and the “overwhelming volume of data makes it impossible to have a human monitor every camera at all times.” The spokesperson said BriefCam will enable the jail staff to respond faster to medical emergencies and speed up investigations.</p><p>Stephen Ragan, a policy and advocacy strategist with the ACLU of Illinois, said he is skeptical the data collected by the technology will remain private. He added that “object identification for things like gender, clothing, weight, height, gait and other identifying characteristics are ways to work around biometric identification like facial recognition but nonetheless raise similar concerns around accuracy and bias.” [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/criminal-justice/2026/05/12/cook-county-jail-ai-briefcam-chicago-crime\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>WBEZ</u></a>]</p><p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/money/2026/05/12/cook-county-property-tax-sale-violations-pappas\" target=\"_blank\" ><b><u>2. Cook County is liable for property tax sale violations, a judge ruled</u></b></a></p><p>The county will need to pay back potentially millions of dollars to people who lost their homes in annual property tax sales, three years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the system unconstitutional, my colleagues Violet Miller and Nicole Jeanine Johnson report.</p><p>Since 2020, nearly 2,500 homeowners not only lost their properties but also the equity they had built in those homes after their delinquent property taxes were sold.</p><p>Under that system, if taxes went unpaid, counties sold tax certificates to buyers to recuperate money from properties with unpaid taxes. Those tax buyers often tacked on fees and interest in addition to the existing rent, which homeowners have 2½ years to pay off before the tax buyer can go to court to get the deed to their home, forcing the owner to vacate.</p><p>The majority of homes lost this way since 2019 were taken after an initial property tax debt of $1,600 or less, according to an investigation by the Investigative Project on Race and Equity and Injustice Watch. The initial debt that cost people their homes was collectively $2.3 million, but the homes had a total market value of more than $108 million. Many cases involved the transfer of homes from Black neighborhoods like Roseland and Englewood to wealthy investors. [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/money/2026/05/12/cook-county-property-tax-sale-violations-pappas\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>Chicago Sun-Times</u></a>]</p><p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/immigration/2026/05/12/justice-department-facebook-apple-ice-sighting\" target=\"_blank\" ><b><u>3. The Justice Department can no longer pressure Facebook and Apple to remove ICE-sighting apps, a judge ruled</u></b></a></p><p>The order, issued last week, stems from a lawsuit filed in February claiming the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Homeland Security coerced Facebook and Apple into removing a Chicago-area immigration enforcement agent-sighting group on Facebook and a similar mobile app.</p><p>Kassandra “Kae” Rosado said her ICE Sighting-Chicagoland group aimed to keep residents informed about where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were seen in the Chicago area.</p><p>Also joining the lawsuit was Mark Hodges, an Indiana resident who created the mobile app Eyes Up, which allowed users to record, securely store and view videos of ICE officers committing potential civil rights violations. The lawsuit alleges Apple removed Hodges’ app from the App Store in October — during the height of the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” deportation campaign — after pressure from the federal government. [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/immigration/2026/05/12/justice-department-facebook-apple-ice-sighting\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>Chicago Sun-Times</u></a>]</p><p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/music/2026/05/12/patti-smith-2026-harold-washington-literary-award\" target=\"_blank\" ><b><u>4. Rocker Patti Smith will receive the 2026 Harold Washington Literary Award</u></b></a></p><p>The Near South Planning Board, a nonprofit community development organization, awards the prize annually at a September dinner that kicks off the Printers Row Lit Fest. The 41st edition of the free outdoor literary festival will be held Sept. 12-13.</p><p>Smith was born in Chicago before her family moved to New Jersey when she was a young child. At 79, she is known for her work across genres, including her seminal 1975 album, “Horses,” and her 2010 book, “Just Kids,” which chronicles her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and her early years in New York. It won the 2010 National Book Award for Nonfiction.</p><p>Smith’s other books include “Woolgathering,” “M Train” and “Year of the Monkey.” Last year, she released another memoir, “Bread of Angels,” which picks up in many ways where “Just Kids” left off, with the relationship with her late husband, Fred “Sonic” Smith. The Harold Washington selection committee called it “among her most intimate and revealing works.” [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/music/2026/05/12/patti-smith-2026-harold-washington-literary-award\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>WBEZ</u></a>]</p><p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/books/2026/05/12/john-wayne-gacy-a-question-of-doubt-graveface-museum\" target=\"_blank\" ><b><u>5. Why is a macabre Chicago museum reissuing John Wayne Gacy’s death row confessional?</u></b></a></p><p>The previously hard-to-find book, rereleased by the owners of the Graveface Museum, is the latest unboxed cultural artifact in the seemingly never-ending fascination with the prolific serial killer, WBEZ contributor Zachary Nauth reports.</p><p>The cold case counts five unidentified victims and is still open under the jurisdiction of Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart. The book’s publication date of Sunday is also notable: 32 years to the day after the 52-year-old Gacy was executed following his murder conviction in 1980. The book was originally titled “The 34th Victim.”</p><p>There’s not much new, other than an introduction by Karen Gacy, who remained close with a brother she nonetheless believed was guilty of murder (she died in 2024). The book does have several lengthy excerpts from the trial transcript, which is not publicly available. [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/books/2026/05/12/john-wayne-gacy-a-question-of-doubt-graveface-museum\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>WBEZ</u></a>]</p><p><b>Here’s what else is happening</b></p><ul class=\"rte2-style-ul\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-inline-start:48px;\" id=\"rte-3b0f06b3-4e40-11f1-b4e4-95a601a200b5\"><li>Inflation jumped to its highest level since 2023, largely driven by the cost of fuel and housing. [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/05/12/nx-s1-5818279/inflation-cpi-gas-prices-housing-fuel-iran-war\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>NPR</u></a>]</li><li>U.S. Food & Drug Administration chief Marty Makary is resigning after months of complaints from health industry executives. [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://apnews.com/article/fda-trump-makary-kennedy-vaccines-drugs-ef151784342c48cca3b91a829d615b5e\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>AP</u></a>]</li><li>President Donald Trump is headed to Beijing for a summit in which he’ll try to convince China’s leader to help the U.S. reach an agreement with Iran. [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://apnews.com/article/trump-xi-iran-sanctions-trade-48b0ca751712ce473ffcd207997928af\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>AP</u></a>]</li><li>For many editors and writers, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” serves as an elegy for fashion journalism. (I watched the movie last weekend and did not expect to think so much about work on a Friday night.) [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/movies/devil-wears-prada-2-magazine.html?unlocked_article_code=1.h1A.WYBm.K-ncJAJqQO5T&smid=url-share\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>New York Times</u></a>]</li></ul><p><b>Oh, and one more thing …</b></p><p>Have you watched last week’s surprise episode of “The Bear,” set in Gary, Indiana? Koney King, one of the city’s best-kept secrets, made a brief cameo in the flashback story, my colleague Michael Puente reports for WBEZ. The restaurant is famous for its hot dogs, chili dogs, hamburgers and more served behind a double-horseshoe counter with old-school swivel stools.</p><p>“A lot of people are coming in and saying, ‘We saw you on “The Bear”’! A lot of people now want to come in and try us out,” said 44-year-old Elisha Evans, who’s worked at Koney King on Broadway for seven years and makes an appearance in the episode.</p><p>Combined with the release of the recent Michael Jackson biopic “Michael,” Evans said it’s nice to see Gary get some positive exposure.</p><p>“Instead of always something negative, or when you hear Gary, you just think of the bad,” Evans said. “I’m kind of glad that we have good things happening that’s going to draw people. We’re not as bad as people think. … Come check us out for yourself.” [<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.wbez.org/movies-tv/2026/05/12/surprise-episode-of-the-bear-puts-garys-historic-koney-king-in-the-spotlight\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>WBEZ</u></a>]</p><p><b>Tell me something good …</b></p><p>I just learned the restaurant that made Maxwell Street Polish sausage famous is <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://blockclubchicago.org/2026/05/10/jims-original-the-iconic-polish-sausage-stand-moving-to-pilsen-due-to-uic-development/\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>moving</u></a>, meaning there’s another famous Chicago spot I need to try ASAP. But that also has me wondering, what are your favorite places to get a hot dog in the Chicago area?</p><p>Yolanda writes:</p><p>“My favorite childhood hot dog stand is Byron’s Hot Dogs in Wrigleyville. My favorite memory is my father taking me and my siblings to eat their delicious hot dogs prior to a Cubs game. Today, I continue and share that tradition with my family, and friends.”</p><p>Roger writes:</p><p>“You’re not going to believe this, but my favorite place for a hot dog in Chicago is Home Depot on North Avenue in the city. Notably, this location features excellent Chicago-style, fully-loaded hot dogs. In nice weather, you can enjoy your hot dog on the display picnic tables for sale right outside the door in the parking lot. I'm sure this draws trades people to get their building supplies there, and a great hot dog at the same time.”</p><p>And Birdy writes:</p><p>“Please no one bother arguing. Waste of time. There is no place better to get a hot dog than Gene and Jude’s in River Grove. I’ve been going there since I was a very little girl, starting probably 70 years ago. Every generation of family and friends is hooked. When folks move out of state, they always want to go to Gene and Jude’s as soon as they get back here. I’m sure other places are good, but not the best!”</p><p>Feel free to email me, and your response may be included in the newsletter this week.</p>",
  "title": "The county’s proposed facial recognition tech: The Rundown",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-12T20:45:01.850Z"
}