After a lot of red tape and a lot of talk about privacy, the day has finally arrived.

High above the streets and sidewalks downtown, HPD will be able to watch people coming and going 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“I think it’s good. It will probably cut down on crime. Definitely. There have been a lot of break-ins of cars and stuff like that,” Richard Ortiz said. 

Houston is way behind other cities in the use of cameras to fight crime.

Baltimore was one of the first to use the power of the lens, and that was more than a decade ago.

And overseas, London is leading the way.  In fact, investigators were able to identify the men who bombed the subways there by images from their public cameras.

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“We want to make places where a lot of citizens travel will be safe. We want to have something that if there is an incident, it would be available to the investigators to help identify the suspect,” Mayor Bill White said.

The cameras were being installed in five areas downtown, starting Wednesday and running through the end of the week, all along the Main Street corridor.

The area is home to nightclubs and restaurants, and is where the city parties for big events like all-star games and the Super Bowl.

And some people don’t seem to mind the prying eyes.

“It’s not going to bother me. I am just going to class,” Jennifer Baldwin said.

The wireless cameras were financed by Houston’s downtown management district, but they will be monitored by HPD’s Special Operations Division at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

HPD says the videos will not be available to the public, but as the mayor said, they’ll be used to keep the public safe and to solve crimes.

All of which is an easier task when the suspects are caught on tape.