BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Newly installed cameras around the Sherwood Forest neighborhood are connecting one-by-one to Baton Rouge’s real-time crime center, as residents look to curb crime.

Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome and Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul announced an initiative Tuesday, linking surveillance cameras and license plate readers to a crime-tracking hub inside BRPD headquarters.

“The Sherwood Forest cameras are only the first of the many we hope to add to the program over the next year, as other neighborhoods, businesses, and citizens join this initiative,” Paul said.

The cameras and plate readers are not city-, nor parish-funded. The Sherwood Forest Crime District, a collective of neighborhood residents, purchased the equipment. (Sherwood Forest is one of 33 neighborhoods in East Baton Rouge Parish where residents have voted to fund crime-fighting initiatives.)

City officials also announced a second project, the Connect Blue Baton Rouge Directory. It will give residents and businesses access, upon request, to public-facing security cameras. Paul said the directory will make it easier for the BRPD to obtain video when crimes happen; officers can contact directory members directly.

“Not only will it prevent when a crime does occur, we actually have tools that we can go into to use technology to help solve those crimes,” Paul said.

Residents and businesses can join the Connect Blue Baton Rouge Directory by visiting brla.gov/ConnectBlue.