Crime-Fighting Armadillo

The Wall Street Journal reports on an innovative approach to law enforcement:

PEORIA, Ill. -- This industrial city, hard hit by the recession, has found a new, low-budget way to fight crime: Park an unmanned, former Brink's truck bristling with video cameras in front of the dwellings of troublemakers.

Police here call it the Armadillo. They say it has restored quiet to some formerly rowdy streets. Neighbors' calls for help have dropped sharply. About half of the truck's targets have fled the neighborhood.

"The truck is meant to be obnoxious and to cause shame," says Peoria Police Chief Steven Settingsgaard.

What's the Fifth Circuit angle, you ask? Well, there's lots of armadillos in Texas, albeit of the nine-banded kind.

Hat tip: CrimProf Blog.