Image by Ken Hawkins/TheDigitelImage by 20090819-camera.jpg Camera's aren't exactly alien to the Charleston area, this one is at the new Mount Pleasant Memorial Watefront Park.

Ten new video cameras will soon go online in the upper peninsula, and Police Chief Greg Mullen is hopping they'll do much good to cut down on crime -- or at least catch those responsible.

The Post and Courier has a written report while ABC News 4 has a video report on this issue.

If the project is succesful, the camera network could soon expand to other more tourist-heavy portions of the city. 

On the issue of the cameras, this tech-savvy guy is a little mixed. On one hand the cameras offer a chance to reduce labor cost and capture less-fallible evidence than your average cop. 

But on the flip side, $300,000 plus maintenance costs could easily pay for one or two more cops to walk King Street at all hours of the day.  And then there was the reports that the thousands of and thousands of cameras in London have failed to reduce crime.

The public will just have to make sure it gets its moneys worth out of the 10 cameras before we buy more.