Pubdate: Mon, 31 Dec 2007
Source: Indianapolis Star (IN)
Copyright: 2007 Indianapolis Newspapers Inc.
Contact: http://www.indystar.com/help/contact/letters.html
Website: http://www.indystar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/210
Author: Vic Ryckaert

CAMERAS ARE HELPING TO FIGHT CRIME, INDY POLICE SAY

Anti-Terror Funds Paid for 21 'Eyes'; City Will Install Dozens More in '08

Cameras positioned at intersections across Indianapolis, paid for 
with anti-terrorism dollars, are helping police catch suspects 
committing everyday crimes.

The city's year-old crime-fighting cameras have captured at least 
three drug deals on city streets, officials say.

Twenty-one cameras are in operation on utility poles across the city. 
By the end of 2008, 67 will be up and running, many of them mounted 
near Lucas Oil Stadium. About 20 will be deployed in high-crime areas.

"We all want the bad guys to know that public safety is looking," 
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Deputy Chief John Ball said. "If 
they are out there doing it and there's a camera close, we're 
probably going to see it."

Citing security concerns, Ball declined to provide a list of all of 
the camera locations.

The cameras are topped with flashing blue lights. Most are positioned 
near Conseco Fieldhouse, the RCA Dome and government buildings, 
including the Statehouse and the City-County Building.

The system's brain is a high-tech control room tucked away in the 
basement of Marion County's Metropolitan Emergency Communications 
Agency, 47 S. State Ave. Up to three officers sit in front of more 
than a dozen monitors and watch the people, cars and occasional birds 
that flit into a camera's view.

"It's not cops and robbers, chasing people down," Ball said, "but the 
officers that work in here perform the same type of observation for 
suspicious behavior, and they can do so unobtrusively."

The control room looks like a showroom at a high-end electronics 
store, with three huge TV screens and two slightly smaller TVs 
mounted on the wall, and 12 flat-screen monitors at three computer 
workstations.

"(Working here is) like playing a video game in some ways," Ball 
said. "(Younger officers) really take to the new technology very well."

The control center and most of the cameras were funded by a $1 
million Homeland Security grant. Officials are using $400,000 in cash 
seized from criminals to purchase more cameras and equipment.

Each permanently mounted camera costs about $14,000; the movable 
cameras cost about $12,000 each, officials said. Similar cameras have 
been widely used in more than a dozen cities, including Boston, 
Dallas and Los Angeles.

In October, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley announced plans to add 100 
cameras to the streets, bringing that city's total to 559.

"When we first began to install them, many people were skeptical. But 
the community began to see their worth as they effectively dispersed 
wrongdoers who knew their activities were being recorded," Daley said 
in a statement announcing the new cameras.

Chicago neighborhoods with cameras operating for more than six months 
reported a 30 percent decrease in crime and a 60 percent drop in drug 
incidents.

"People want these cameras in their neighborhoods," Daley said. "A 
camera is the next best thing to having a police officer on the street."

Many Indianapolis residents, especially those who live in high-crime 
neighborhoods, are embracing the system.

"I'm not concerned about Big Brother," Near East Side Community 
Organization board member Jerry Shepherd said. "I'm worried about 
drug dealers shooting it out and another child being killed on the street."

One of the first cameras in the city was deployed on the Eastside, at 
Rural and Michigan streets. Shepherd would like to see more cameras 
in the neighborhood.

"They seem to have reduced the crime in that area," he said. "You 
can't just have cameras. You have to have businesses watch out for 
their customers. You have to have neighbors that watch out for each other."

Marion County Sheriff's Lt. Kris Layton, who spends most of his 
workday looking for something suspicious on the screens, said the 
cameras have made an impact on criminals.

"We do see the criminals that were arrested in the past come back to 
the location, but they are trying to be smarter," Layton said. "They 
kind of taunt us at times, showing their money, then walking around 
the corner." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake