DECATUR, Ill. (WCIA) — A community organization wants to do their part to minimize crime in Macon County. This comes after Decatur saw its first murders of the year.

The Coalition of Neighborhood Organizations (CONO) is on a mission to keep its program growing, helping crime rates drop in the City’s neighborhoods. This organization is giving out Blink doorbell cameras for free. These cameras will now be for anyone in Decatur as long as they have Wi-Fi, a device to connect it to and agree to register it with the police.

“Recently, a lot of people have been caught doing crimes by cameras,” said GM Square Neiborhood President, Patricia Butler.

CONO started giving out blink cameras for free in neighborhoods around Decatur.

“Last year, in GM Square 2024, we gave out about 40 cameras, but in the entire CONO area, I believe they gave out like 120,” Butler said.

She went door-to-door in GM Square to pass them out. All you needed was Wi-Fi, a device to connect it to and to sign an agreement to register it with the Decatur Police department.

“It really just takes two screws, and it puts the plate up against the building and then you just kind of like snap it on top of the building,” Butler said. “It’s very easy.”

Last year, CONO picked four specific neighborhoods with high crime rates.

“GM Square, SIA, Torrence Park and Neighborhood United,” said CONO President Kathy Williams.

“This year, they’re expanding to allow anyone from Decatur to get cameras, and CONO hopes to see the same kind of success. Butler got reports from the police department after starting the camera program, pointing towards a positive trend.

“It did show that there had not been as many calls or incidents down in GM Square,” Butler said.

And there are more uses than just catching criminals.

“I think they were very pleased because some had children that they could actually watch while they were outside,” Butler said.

CONO has 30 cameras right now and will be ordering more soon, and they’ve got a lofty target for next year.

“Our goal would be, just expand through the city to do more than double,” Butler said.

CONO is also working on developing an option for people with no internet connection. They’re looking at buying motion sensor lights and giving them out the same way as the cameras.