Detroit’s Project Green Light announces expansion

The City of Detroit announced an expansion of Project Green Light, a program where businesses install flashing green lights and enhanced cameras that provide live feeds to the city’s police department, with an assist from Comcast Business, who leases equipment to businesses participating in the program.

Small businesses in the city now have the option of enrolling in Project Green Light for an up-front fee of $1,000 – down from a cost of $6,0000 from when the project first launched in January – and a monthly fee starting at $139.75 per month, with a three-year agreement with Comcast.

“We have seen violent crime cut in half at Green Light station, but we don’t have nearly enough businesses signed up,” Mayor Mike Duggan told reporters today. “Every business in town should be willing to spend $140 a month to keep their customers safe.”

Project Green Light, which encourages businesses such as gas stations, convenience stores, coney islands and others that have late hours, began with eight businesses and has grown to 42 in the last eight months. Duggan says 50 more businesses have expressed interest in the program.

Businesses that participate in Project Green Light have constant camera monitoring of parking lots and entryways. The cameras capture sharper color images than a typical surveillance camera would, while a live feed of individual premises is also captured at the Detroit Police Department’s headquarters.

In addition to the program’s expansion, the DPD says a new monitoring system that tracks live feeds and other activity at Green Light locations will be complete by the end of the year.

“Our crime’s been down like crazy at the stations,” says Mohammed Rustam, who owns several gas stations in the city enrolled in Project Green Light. “Since I got them, I don’t even get the calls anymore.”

For more information about Project Green Light, visit www.greenlightdetroit.org.