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The city’s Project Green Light has expanded to the first Detroit school, with hopes of covering more in the future.
The program, which lets the Detroit Police Department monitor live camera feeds, is being introduced at Randolph Career Technical Education School on Hubbell Street in northwest Detroit. The anti-crime program is in nearly 300 stores around the city.
"Students’ safety is key to increasing our enrollment and creating a learning environment where students can focus on their education," district Supt. Nikolai Vitti says in a statement. "We are grateful for the security camera infrastructure that will protect not only the investments that were made to bring Randolph Career and Technical Center back to a thriving educational institution, but the newly installed cameras will also ensure the safety of our faculty and guests."
Vitti and the city are discussing the addition of Project Green Light to other schools.
Critics question the venture's effectiveness and raise privacy issues, while others applaud the added security.
At Randolph, 21 exterior cameras and two interior ones are installed to monitor the parking lot and doors.
The Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation paid for the installation of the cameras, installed by Detroit-based Infinite Technologies.
The original eight gas stations that joined the project two years ago have seen a nearly 60-percent reduction in violent crime at or next to their businesses, according to the press release. "Across all 300 Green Light Businesses, whether they joined the program early on or as recently as 2018, there has been an average 30% reduction in violent crime from 2015-2017," it adds.
