Cameras like the one on Monument Circle (left) and at Washington & Illinois (right) has popped up around downtown Indianapolis.

A surveilance camera stretches about 20 feet into the air, and it's mounted on a trailer, gated off right on the circle.

Listen:

At first, no one knew where the camera came from, from Homeland Security to IMPD.  But after two days of phone calls, we finally leaned it was part of a joint effort between IMPD and Homeland Security.

IMPD Deputy Chief Mike Bates says the trailer mounted camera will keep an eye on summer festivities downtown. "With all the events downtown, not so much the Summer Celebration this weekend, but the Motorcycles on Meridian next month and all the events on the circle, we thought we'd like to have some kind of a situational awareness down there, so that's why we deployed that camera."

Bates says the mobile camera is great because they can move it wherever they need it to be...he says the city has been adding cameras since the superbowl earlier this year.