From perches high above downtown St. Catharines, there are electronic eyes trained on the streets below, but no one is watching---not yet.

Closed circuit cameras have started to go up in the core.  By Tuesday afternoon acting Deputy Chief of Niagara Regional Police Carl Scott said about a half the 25 cameras being installed downtown were mounted.

Scott says they should all be ready to go by the end of June.

Police will record footage picked up by the cameras & store it to access if there's a crime to look into, but no one will watch the streets through the camera lenses live.

While Scott says the footage won't be the panacea of investigative tools, it should cut out time spent chasing down court orders to access surveillance footage & allow police to get a clearer picture of who suspects are & track their actions.

Police hope the cameras will discourage would-be criminals too.  Scott says police are being upfront about the cameras& there will be plenty of signs in the spots where they're installed.

The acting Deputy Police Chief believes the cameras will add a layer of comfort for people downtown.

The $181 000 cost of the cameras & monitoring equipment is being paid for entirely by a federal grant.