Buffalo has launched its anti-crime surveillance camera initiative following an eight-month installation and "tweaking" process.

City officials cut the ceremonial ribbon today on a surveillance monitoring room in Police Headquarters, a high-tech center that allows law enforcers to scrutinize activities in dozens of neighborhoods.

Thus far, 43 cameras have been installed throughout the city. By the end of the year, more than 100 surveillance devices will be documenting activities in high crime areas, business districts and spots where homeland security is a potential concern.

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When the installations are finished, Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson said, Buffalo's surveillance capabilities will be substantial.

"We will be one of the elite camera systems in the United States of America," he told reporters today.

The cameras can zoom in up to 400 yards to read license plates or provide close-ups of individuals. During today's demonstration, one officer who was monitoring cameras used a joystick to zoom in on a street corner. The shot was so clear that small pieces of litter could be pinpointed.

Mayor Byron W. Brown said the cameras have been making a difference even during the test phases.

"Crime in neighborhoods around these cameras seems to be drying up," he said.

Gipson said the cameras have already helped officers make numerous arrests, including some drug-related arrests.

In the longer term, the Police Department hopes to expand the surveillance system by obtaining viewing rights to cameras that the school district and the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority plan to install around some of their properties.