Birmingham police will soon have some extra help to spot crime. The Birmingham City Council Tuesday approved an agreement with Alabama Power to install 100 cameras around the city. The service and equipment will cost $672,000. The city will pay Alabama Power Company that amount over five years.
The vote comes as the city continues to wrestle with an increase in violent crime.
Hunter Williams, chairman of the council’s public safety committee, says the cameras will work alongside the city’s shot spotter devices. Those detect the sound of bullets and alert police, but Williams says police need more.
“Right now, we have an audible shot spotter in place, but we are blind to see what’s going on as those shots ring out,” he says. “So, what this will do, it will couple with that so that we will have eyes and ears.”
Williams says the cameras will be connected to police dispatch and Jefferson County’s shared crime monitoring system.
The council’s vote on the cameras was unanimous.