Criminals beware, the city of Vicksburg will be watching you.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen last week authorized the installation of video cameras at the intersection of Bowmar Avenue and Drummond Street, Lee Street, and at Riverfront Park. Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said the locations were based on the volume of E911 calls for police. If an area has a high number of calls, he said, it will get a camera.

“So if you want a camera in your community, start committing crimes, because we have every intention to catch the criminals in this city, and we’re going to stamp out crime in this city by identifying them.”

He said cameras will also be used to identify people illegally dumping garbage and trash in the city.

Flaggs thanked the people who filmed an ongoing fight in July, saying the videos allowed police to catch the people involved. The fight, which began on Pearl Street, moved to Ethel Street and later to Farmer Street, was shown on Facebook, and police used the video to identify and charge 16 adults and two juveniles with disturbing the peace.

“That video went viral,” Flaggs said. “Now we’re going to go viral for real, because what we’re going to do is identity the criminals before, during and after, because they won’t know they’re being videoed.

“We are serious about zero tolerance of crime in this city, and I believe this can be a model for the state.”

He said the cameras were one more way to assist police in investigating crime “and one more tool to stomp out crime.”