More than a dozen Durham neighborhoods are gearing up for a fight against allowing electronic billboards along the city's major roads.

The devices were touted as crime-fighting tools during a Friday meeting of the Durham Crime Cabinet, a group of law enforcement and other community leaders. The InterNeighborhood Council, which represents 31 Durham communities, is also against it.

Electronic billboards are like large television screens displaying static or animated messages, usually advertisements. These billboards, often seen in bigger cities, can show up-to-the-minute information on ongoing incidents and provide visual information, such as a picture or a license plate. They're already in Greensboro, Burlington, Charlotte, Rocky Mount and New Bern.

Fairway Outdoor Advertising, which owns 47 of the county's 89 billboards, is proposing an ordinance change allowing electronic billboards. They want to keep the current number of billboards, remove all of them from residential neighborhoods and upgrade all billboards to steel structures. The electronic billboards, with built-in light sensors, would be maintained by their respective owners.

If approved, electronic billboards would make up 25 percent of all billboards in the county, said Patrick L. Byker, a Durham lawyer and former Crime Cabinet member representing Fairway. They would display static messages along U.S. 70, N.C. 147, Interstate 85 and U.S. 15-501 -- areas already with billboards. All billboards would be converted to monopole structures for a cleaner appearance, he said. Each electronic billboard would donate one public service announcement image per minute. All advertising would cease for two hours during an Amber Alert or any other major incident, including Silver Alerts and natural disasters. Byker wants Durham's electronic billboards to participate in the FBI National Digital Billboard Initiative, where digital billboards are used to display fugitive information.

"It's important to recognize that Durham has a crime problem that requires a multi-faceted approach," Byker said. "Using these digital billboards is such an effective way to get information out to many, many people."

The Crime Cabinet didn't take a position on the billboards, but Durham County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Mike Andrews and Durham Police Chief Jose L. Lopez Sr. expressed their support. Most accidents are caused by distractions such as eating and cell phone usage, not electronic billboards, Lopez said. Andrews said the billboards will benefit law enforcement.

"I do think this will be a tool for law enforcement to use be it whether a Silver Alert, Amber Alert, major incident or homicide suspects," Andrews said. "It will be a great tool for us. We're always asked why we're not doing more and how we can improve our jobs. This will benefit us."

Some neighbors see the billboards as a money-making ploy. John Schelp, who helped start www.supportdurhambillboardban.com, said over a dozen neighborhoods want to keep the current ordinance. The InterNeighborhood Council passed a resolution against electronic billboards in March.

Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association, thinks the electronic signs will distract drivers, provide fewer jobs for people who maintain traditional billboards and reward advertising companies for not maintaining their current billboards. He says the state Department of Transportation signs that hang above travel lanes provide alert information without distracting drivers for too long.

"Why should we overturn a billboard ordinance that is working, that is reducing the number of billboards in our community and achieving all the goals of all the efforts that went into creating that ordinance in the 1980's," he said. "This is a desperate ploy by the billboard industry to save its billboards and it should be rejected."

Byker said Fairway will work on proposals for the city-county planning department and the Crime Cabinet. He did not say when those proposals will be presented.