In Fighting Crime, City Hopes Pictures Don’t Lie
Indianapolis will soon join the growing list of U.S. cities that have installed security cameras in high-crime areas. The city’s police plan to purchase 22 pole-mounted, bulletproof permanent cameras and an undetermined number of mobile cameras in late November.
The motion-sensing cameras can detect gunshots and recognize faces and will be installed near sports stadiums, water treatment facilities, and other areas, though police are unsure when the cameras will be up and running.
Images captured by the cameras are transmitted to a central computer at police headquarters and can be accessed by police on in-car computers.
A $1 million Homeland Security grant will pay for the permanent cameras along with the necessary hardware and software, and future funding will come from money seized from drug dealers and other criminals.
“We are adding officers to the streets and performing saturation patrols in high-crime areas,” Mayor Bart Peterson said. “These cameras will be a great tool to complement those additional resources and increase police presence in neighborhoods.”
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) from the Indianapolis Star (10/21/06) P. 1; Ryckaert, Vic.
