In a collaboration between New York-based home security company Canary, Chicago officials and Bulls Point Guard Kris Dunn, hundreds of South Side residents will be gifted home security systems on Saturday, Sept. 23 as a way to help reduce and discourage crime in the area.
The event, branded Chicago Safe, will take place at Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Paideia Academy in the South Shore neighborhood. Doors open at 10 a.m.
The first 400 attendees will receive a Canary system, which allows users to remotely monitor their homes by streaming real-time video on their phone from cameras at their house.
Canary was founded in 2013 by Adam Sager, CEO, Chris Rill, CTO, and Jon Troutman, chief design officer. They have raised $41.2 million in funding from investors like San Francisco-based Walden Riverwood Ventures and Khosla Ventures in Menlo Park, Calif., according to crunchbase.
Over the last year, the company has prioritized philanthropic initiatives and has donated more than 8,000 of its security devices to different communities throughout the country.
“Security should be democratized,” Sager said. “It’s a basic fundamental human right—to be secure and to feel secure in your own home.”
The Chicago Safe event is the first in a larger series, branded America Safe, in which the company will host similar events in other cities in the future.
But Canary chose to kick off the series in Chicago because of the rampant crime that occurs in some of the city’s neighborhoods.
“We knew that our products could have an immediate impact on families there,” Sager said. “It was a no-brainer.”
To help better connect with people living in these neighborhoods, Canary asked Dunn to join the initiative, both because he’s a well-known Chicago athlete and because he has a personal interest in neighborhood safety, Sager said.
According to an NBA profile, Dunn and his brother became orphans in Alexandria, Va. when he was 14. To avoid being split up by Child Protective Services, the brothers scraped together food and rent money, and kept welfare and school officials unaware of their parentless status.
“Kris knows what it’s like to grow up in dangerous neighborhoods,” Sager said. “For Kris, this is very personal.”
Dunn will attend the event this weekend, a spokesperson said.
Canary’s donation to Chicago is in line with an existing public safety initiative in Chicago’s 7th ward, where the Chicago Safe event is taking place. Seventh Ward Alderman Greg Mitchell said that over the last year, his team has been ramping up efforts to install more cameras outside and inside homes in his ward’s neighborhoods, which include parts of Calumet Heights, South Chicago, South Deering and South Shore. The area has experienced a significant number of home burglaries and car-jacking recently, Mitchell said.
“If we can create some type of opportunity where the residents can have cameras installed in their houses, both outside and inside, that provides coverage for the communities on a large scale,” he said. “If something does happen, the police have a mechanism in place to help with the investigation.”
At town hall meetings, Mitchell says anywhere from 500-1,000 people show up, and he’s betting on a similar crowd for the Chicago Safe event.
“Hopefully this [event] continues to spur more engagement to help out with public safety in our communities,” Mitchell said. “I got a feeling this is going to bring them out."
