Senior Sergeant John Fookes, of Queenstown, last week said the Queenstown Lakes District Council's proposed network, which could be monitored by volunteers, would help prevent serious crimes such as assault.
"These people who are committing minor offences earlier in the evenings, they are often the ones we see committing the major offences later on.
"[With CCTV], we are able to identify these people when they are getting boisterous and are able to intervene ..."
Speaking to the Queenstown Times earlier this year, Senior Constable Sean Drader, of Queenstown, said "violence, including disorder", was over-represented in the community and growing.
Snr Sgt Fookes said network cameras in the central business district would also be "very useful" in solving such crime, as had often happened using Queenstown commercial premises' private cameras.
QLDC community services general manager Paul Wilson last week confirmed the council was in the second stage of the tendering process, and had reissued new specifications to "about four" tenderers.
He said at least 10 companies had tendered expressions of interest, and those asked to re-tender included "multinational" companies, as well as locally based ones.
One of the major concerns about the project was not the cost of installing the equipment but the cost of monitoring the cameras, former Queenstown Lakes district mayor Clive Geddes said last year.
When asked who would take the responsibility, Mr Wilson said Snr Const Drader had confirmed to council that police would be in charge of the cameras.
Snr Const Drader last week told the Otago Daily Times police would not necessarily monitor the cameras because that would make it a "pretty time-intensive system".
However, police had not yet finalised their proposal.
He referred to a previous local CCTV network set up in the mid-1990s by the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce, retailers and police which was not monitored but was "helpful" when police were told of incidents and could immediately "zoom in" on cameras.
Another option, he said, would be a system similar to those in Dunedin and Christchurch, which made use of police-trained volunteers to keep an eye on CCTV monitors.
"What we are proposing to do is have volunteers, if that is feasible, but we don't know what the system will be as it's still in the tendering process," he said.
Queenstown police are one of several parties who have been calling for a new CCTV network for more than three years.
The previous network ran out of funding and the cameras mostly fell into disrepair by 2003.
The issue did not come before council again until 2008.
Mr Wilson expected the revised tenders would return near the end of June, at which point the council would have a better idea of the cost of the cameras.
The cameras would probably be installed in stages.
"There's $200,000 allocated for lighting and CCTV in the town and the mix of that really depends on the tender we come up with."
Chamber chief executive Ann Lockhart was pleased last week to hear "some progress had been made".
"The chamber's overall message is that we think it's essential for an international resort such as Queenstown that visitors should be able to enjoy a certain level of comfort and security when they are in town," Ms Lockhart said.
"The chamber's standing has always been that we should have these issues resolved as soon as possible".
