Sandra Chapman/Eyewitness News
Indianapolis - They are a new breed of crime fighters: cameras across Indianapolis, eyes focused on keeping the peace in the streets.
Flashing blue lights are a typical response to crime. Now they're a warning that a star witness is watching.
"We want the criminals to know that they're being watched," said Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, announcing the plan to install 27 security cameras around the city.
They're called PODSS: Portable Overt Digital Surveillance Systems. They're now taking aim in some of the city's highest crime areas.
"We want the people that live in this neighborhood and the other neighborhoods where we're deploying this cameras to know that they are being protected by a new technique," the Mayor continued.
The first one has already been installed on the east side at Michigan and Rural.
Robert Sanders has lived in the east side neighborhood for four years.
"It's really been crazy a lot of shootings and robberies going on around here," he told Eyewitness News.
Sanders is in no way opposed to having his neighborhood under surveillance.
He believes "If it helps stop the crime and stuff over here -- if that's what you need then that's what you need to put down there."
The Mayor admitted the city needed to do a better job.
"This has been a year where we've had to deal with a significant increase in homicide and other violent crime," he noted.
Other camera hotspots include:
Capitol at 38th
Capitol and 34th
Rural and 10th
Market and State Streets
38th and Emerson.
City officials say they have sought outside counsel on installing the cameras, including the advice of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. Indianapolis Police Chief Michael Spears says he hopes Indianapolis can experience similar results.
"Cities such as Chicago have seen tremendous decreases in crime," said Spears - up to a 40-percent decrease in crime.
The bullet proof, digital camera with a 360-degree angle is the same technology investigators used to crack the London bombings case.
Public Safety Director Earl Morgan said, "The technology did not stop that kind of issue. However it was very instrumental in determining the culprits."
Fourteen permanent cameras will zoom in on important downtown infrastructure, including one at Maryland and Illinois outside the Circle Centre Mall, a popular hangout for teens after stores close. A teen was shot outside the location just this past summer.
Other high profile buildings like the State Capitol, the Convention Center and RCA dome will also get constant coverage.
The cameras record up to three days of footage and send images to a central computer at police headquarters.
Still, local top cops say extra eyes are always needed.
"I don't want the citizens to forget that we still continue to need their eyes and ears and what they may see that the camera doesn't see," said Sheriff Frank Anderson.
$400,000 seized from forfeitures and drug raids will pay for the neighborhood cameras. Police have the flexibility of moving them from location to location.
The permanent downtown cameras come from a $1 million Homeland Security grant.
