Chicago is set to become the first city in the US to install surveillance cameras that are linked to emergency dispatch centres after studying how police and counter-terrorism agencies in the UK have used the systems.

The “Windy City” - the third largest in the US after New York and Los Angeles - will install 250 cameras for use by early 2006, creating what the city’s mayor Richard Daley says are “the equivalent of hundreds of sets of eyes” to monitor suspicious behaviour and spot crime.