A pilot project that's part of a larger pilot project in Davenport is ready to start. Later this week, cameras will be turned on and start recording along a section of Washington Street.
The city's Capital Manager, Clay Merritt, says the police department will be the main user of these cameras, from Locust Street south to Clay, about 7 blocks.
"People aren't actively watching you. These things are recording, but they'll only be looked at when incidents occur. That's the point of them being there - to see if they can help provide another tool for the police department to help solve crime."
Merritt says the camera experiment is part of Davenport's experimental urban re-vitalization program for this neighborhood - fixing streets and sidewalks, improving its appearance, and trying to reduce crime.
"This area is part residential, it's part business, and there's a high level of community involvement in it. So it just kind of checked a lot of the boxes that we have for the urban revitalization program, of which this camera is a component of it."
And he says there's strong support for the cameras, and the revitalization program, in this neighborhood
