Fifteen new hi-tech cameras are going up around Birmingham and Wolverhampton as West Midlands Police continues its crackdown on youth violence and knife crime.
Costing almost £100,000, the 4G cameras are being installed in hot spot areas with five cameras installed in Wolverhampton and a further 10 across Birmingham, including two around the busy Soho Road area.
The new cameras will join an existing dozen cameras which have already been dotted around the region for the last seven years.
These new generation cameras react to movement and are clever enough to track whoever is moving, giving CCTV controllers better information, helping them to spot more crimes and zoom in on the offenders.
The cameras can be deployed onto buildings, streetlights using electricity feeds or at remote locations by using battery packs and solar power.
Sgt Nick Giess from Birmingham Partnerships said: “The existing cameras have proved really popular with the communities they are serving and these new ones will help us cover more areas, more of the time.
“Not only do they help us identify crimes and criminals, they also help us focus where to send out extra patrols or when to reassure communities through our Neighbourhood Watch and Street Watch supporters.”
Funding for the two-year project has come from Project Guardian, a West Midlands Police campaign to steer youngsters away from knife crime.
