Good Morning, this is Mayor John Street .

On Tuesday, Philadelphia voters get to make an important choice! Should the Home Rule Charter be amended to call upon the City to fight crime and violence through the use of video surveillance cameras?

I plan to vote “Yes” on this ballot question, and urge you to do the same. Video surveillance cameras are a crime-fighting tool whose time has come!

Philadelphia is a safer city today than it was when I became Mayor in 2000. Serious crime has declined by approximately 17 percent over the last 6 years. The recent increase in gun violence however is unacceptable, and it underscores the need to equip our Police Department - the best in the country - with every reasonable crime-fighting tool available to keep our city safe.

Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson and I joined several members of our City Council recently on a trip to Baltimore, where we met with Baltimore Mayor O’Malley and others to see their security camera system first-hand. We learned video cameras in Baltimore are helping to reduce crime, by permitting police officers to surveill high crime corners with the help of community members!

Citizens sit side by side with police officers to help keep an eye on their blocks and their neighborhoods through a kind of virtual Town Watch. One woman in Baltimore told me she felt safer on her block with video cameras, knowing someone was keeping an eye on her – and on the criminals.

Nearly everywhere you go these days, you are on camera. Whether it is to the local store, an ATM to withdraw money, security cameras are watching and enhancing public safety.

These cameras are not a cure-all, and cities to consider their use as part of broader crime-fighting strategies. Video cameras have received credit with helping to reduce crime in Baltimore, Wilmington and other cities where they have been deployed.

Locally Philadelphia police used surveillance video last year provided by the Post Office to capture the man who killed a Pennsylvania Hospital nurse on her way to work.

At the University of Pennsylvania, 76 cameras between 30 th Street and 43 rd Street give campus police the ability to watch nearly their entire patrol area. We want to bring this same level of added security to Philadelphia neighborhoods most affected by violence.

I am grateful that City Councilman Darrell Clarke and Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller have led the effort to use this technology in our policing program.

I expect this ballot question to pass and when it does Philadelphia will be ready to initiate pilot programs and use this technology to supplement our existing policing strategies. I promise these cameras will be deployed in a manner that respects privacy concerns while improving our capacity to detect and prevent crime.

We are your partners in this fight. Come out to vote Tuesday and vote “Yes” on the ballot question on video surveillance cameras. Together we will ensure Philadelphia becomes the safest big city in America.

From City Hall, this is Mayor John Street. Have a great weekend, and don’t forget to drink your water!