DETROIT – It all started three years ago as a way to make Detroit gas stations safer by wiring them with cameras monitored by police.
Since then, Project Green Light has helped reduce crime all over Detroit. On Monday, the program hit a major milestone.
"The Green Light signs, you can see them everywhere, no matter where you go. It’s a sense of security," said Greg Volturo with LaFayette Laundry.
And the project has proved to be worth every dollar spent on it. Volturo is one of the hundreds of businesses who partnered with Project Green Light.
The Detroit Police Department started the initiative in 2016 with eight gas stations in an effort to reduce crime.
Every time you walk inside of a Project Green Light partner business, it is recorded on camera and it is all about safety, so this video is sent back to headquarters, just in case something goes wrong.
Police chief James Craig said the idea behind the initiative is working. “We had a minimum of 50 cities come and visit and try to understand and want to adopt Project Green Light or something like Project Green Light,” said Craig.
The concept is growing in Detroit. It was a simple start of just eight partnerships, but now there are 500 businesses.
Clement Brown with 313 Clothing Store on Livernois is the newest partner. “We have a lot of merchandise here, we have nice stuff here,” said Brown.
Brown said he has to protect that merchandise. “The last thing I would want is for a petty thief or somebody to break in and it not be recorded,” he said.
It is that sense of security that makes their job a little easier. Craig said since the launching of the program, crime at Project Green Light locations has gone down 29 percent.