Last winter, the Tampa City Council authorized the use of $2 million in federal money for surveillance cameras to cover downtown Tampa during the Republican National Convention. That was the last time the Council had serious control over the cameras.
The Council debated the continued use of the cameras after the convention, with the ACLU and other civil libertarians agitating to get rid of the technology. Those requests fell on deaf ears, because it turns out the decision is strictly up to Mayor Bob Buckhorn, and he's already said he's not taking the cameras down.
For the past few months, the city's legal staff and police have been working on a policy for responsible use of the cameras. They presented the freshly crafted ordinance to the Council Thursday morning.
Police Chief Jane Castor said the control the 78 cameras downtown will be overseen by the Criminal Intelligence department, and the head of that department reports to the Chief herself. Castor said there would be no live monitoring except for weekend nights in Ybor (which has been the case for years), and for specific occasions, such as Gasparilla or other major events. The Chief said any individual monitoring the cameras will have a unique name and password to get into the system, making it easy for the department to know who is looking and at what time. She said these cameras are all aimed at the street level, and are "not aimed at anyone's windows or private areas."
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2012.