Huge handguns, silver with black grips, hover over parts of Erie.

The guns, plastered on two eastside billboards and seen on an electronic billboard along Peach Street, are designed to get the public's attention.

Of more importance to the Erie Bureau of Police is the message underneath: "Keep your neighborhood safe. Report gun crimes."

The billboards, installed over the past 10 days, ask residents to report gun crimes in progress by calling 911, or to report gun-related incidents to the bureau by calling a nonemergency tip line at 870-1115.

It's the latest step in ongoing efforts to curb gun violence in the city, particularly in an eastside neighborhood where federal funding is supporting increased police patrols and other anti-crime programs.

A portion of the $300,000 Project Safe Neighborhoods grant Erie received a year ago for anti-crime efforts in the East Bayfront neighborhood -- which sits between East 12th Street and the Bayfront Parkway from Parade Street to Payne Avenue -- was earmarked for advertising, Erie Police Chief Randy Bowers said. After considering the best way to use that portion of the grant, officials met with Lamar Advertising and came up with a plan to buy some billboard space in the targeted neighborhood.

The space they purchased is on billboards at East 12th Street and East Avenue and at East Sixth Street and the Bayfront Parkway.

"The whole idea of the advertising campaign is to hopefully help us get information from residents in the Project Safe Neighborhoods area on gun crime. We'll take any information, anonymously or otherwise, on the tip line," Bowers said.

The space on the electronic billboard at West 16th and Peach streets was donated by Lamar Advertising as a public service, Bowers said.

Lamar Advertising officials believe that, although the grant limits the police bureau to advertising only in the East Bayfront neighborhood, it was important to spread the message around the city, said Lauren Coletta, digital director for Lamar Advertising of Erie.

"Obviously crime does not happen in just that part of the city," she said.

The gun crime message will rotate through Lamar Advertising's 15 electronic billboards in the city, Coletta said.

Bowers said he hopes the billboards generate calls not just on gun crimes, but also on any other criminal investigations conducted by his officers.

"We know it's not going to be a miracle cure. But it's another way the public can reach us and give us information on criminal activity," he said.

TIM HAHN can be reached at 870-1731 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNhahn.