Indy Begins Using Street-Corner Surveillance Cameras

TheIndyChannel.com
Dec. 02, 2006

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indianapolis police have begun watching certain street corners with surveillance cameras, saying they hope the devices will help them combat crime. Authorities on Thursday showed off a camera mounted on a light pole at the intersection of Rural and Michigan streets on Indianapolis' east side. Eventually, 27 cameras will be deployed in the city. Some will be placed in areas the city considers hot spots for crime.

Police will be able to see the camera's pictures on their in-car computers and on monitors elsewhere. The cameras also will be able to record up to three days of footage. "If there had been a robbery at this location or a hit-and-run traffic accident, those kinds of things certainly would have been recorded," Indianapolis Police Chief Michael Spears said of the camera at Rural and Michigan. "It would have given us a lot of information that we could have used to follow-up on an investigation or to begin an investigation."

The cameras are being funded in part by a $1 million grant from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. Also helping to foot the bill are $400,000 that law enforcement seized from criminals, 6News' Derrik Thomas reported.

The cameras have a 360-degree range of motion, are bulletproof, and are housed in a box with blue lights. Police said they want the cameras to be noticeable.

"We want them to be very visible, just like we want more patrol cars out there in the community," Spears said. "We want to be a visible presence in the neighborhoods, not only in our patrols, but in our technology. "

Melanie Bruce, a bartender at a tavern near Michigan and Rural, said she is happy with the camera there.

"Plenty of times when I come to work, I am confronted with ... (people asking me about) buying drugs ... in the parking lot," Bruce said. "I'll feel safer with the cameras."

Two doors from the tavern, Rob Anderson works as the chief financial officer for Vandivier Management. 6News asked him whether he was concerned about the cameras invading people's privacy.

"I think in this day and age, with the security things that are going on now after (the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks), concerns about invasion of privacy are probably a little overblown," Anderson said.