Tenders for Queenstown's new 10-camera wireless CCTV system have closed, with the race to supply the $150,000 system down to two tenderers to be decided early next month.
An invited tender for the supply and installation of the system closed on February 17, with the Queenstown Lakes District Council receiving five tenders from two tenderers.
All were within the available budget.
These were under evaluation by the tender panel comprising QLDC general manager community services Paul Wilson and Queenstown Police senior intelligence analyst Senior Constable Sean Drader.
Mr Wilson said power supplies for the cameras were already being installed by council contractor Delta and a contract for the CCTV system should be awarded in early March.
Snr Const Drader said while the 10 cameras would not cover all the downtown area, police were looking forward to once again having them in their crimefighting arsenal.
"We are looking to have cameras that we can move around, so if there's one spot that turns up as a trouble area we can move them there," he said.
Night-shift jailers might check on the Queenstown Police Station's multiple camera screens if needed, but he thought it was unlikely they would be watched constantly as in Christchurch and Dunedin.
Snr Const Drader said the decision on whether the screens might be monitored by volunteers, as they were in the major centres, would be up to Senior Sergeant John Fookes.
"Sometimes it gets hyped up that Big Brother is watching, but these days people expect that they are there for safety ..
"We don't sit there for 24 hours a day.
"It's more about looking back through the footage if we need to."
Wanaka's three cameras, owned and managed by the QLDC, were installed just before Christmas at known trouble spots in the central business district and have already proved a valuable policing tool.
Senior Sergeant Allan Grindell, of Wanaka, earlier this month said the camera footage had led to an arrest for theft and the breaking up of a bout of fighting.
