Natchez Aldermen took the right step Tuesday in allocating $16,000 to purchase more Project NOLA surveillance cameras to be placed throughout the city.

Project NOLA is a program based out of New Orleans that helps municipalities install and monitor crime cameras.

Last year the city installed several Project NOLA cameras in strategic areas throughout the city and the violent crime rate dropped dramatically.

In 2018, Natchez had 12 murders and in 2019 Natchez had three murders, which is a 75% reduction in murders.

Video cameras were a big factor in helping reduce that rate and were especially helpful in areas of the city where many of the violent crimes occurred the previous year.

The cameras have not only helped identify crimes in progress and lead to arrests of individuals captured on video committing crimes, but they have also helped deter crime.

And that is the point.

The more cameras are in place, the more chances anyone committing crimes will be caught on video, identified and apprehended.

Municipalities aren’t the only ones installing cameras, either.

Private homeowners and businesses are installing cameras as well and most of them are not only trained on the camera owners’ properties but also are trained on the surrounding streets as well.

Criminals, beware! Big brother is watching and your crimes will be caught on camera.