The $1 million project to cover the CBD and wider city is currently in the drafting stages, with the rollout of the cameras expected to begin in November.
At an infrastructure committee meeting yesterday, councillors voiced concerns about privacy of citizens and the sharing of data with third parties.
Deputy mayor Tom Campbell said the report already dealt well with some of his privacy concerns, but questioned how long the data would be secured by the council.
"[The report] says it will be stored securely for no longer than is necessary to achieve its purpose, which implies it could be forever," he said.
Chief risk officer and Invercargill City Holdings Ltd general manager Andrew Cameron said the data storage issue was being grappled with.
He said the current system did not create a lot of data, and the data was not kept for very long.
"Obviously as we add more cameras, add more detail in those cameras, the storage and all those issues will need to be addressed as part of that — and then we’ll have to make some hard decisions around what is an appropriate time to keep [the data], how much money do we want to invest in storage."
Chief executive Michael Day said under the Privacy Act, there would be times when the council was obligated to hold certain information for an indefinite timeframe.
"That could be in relation to whether there is some act that has been filmed through those particular cameras that require us."
Mayor Nobby Clark said the council was "a little bit light on how we share particular information when it is requested".
"How easily would the police get access to the information if there was an incident in town?
"Or would they have to put in a request form and wait for someone from council to come galloping in and open up the system and then share the information?"
He said there were a few gaps in the document that still needed to be worked through.
"We will have criticism that Big Brother is watching everybody — that’s what will come to us when we install these cameras."
Council currently owns 200 CCTV cameras in various locations throughout the city, mostly in parks and council buildings.
The number of CCTV cameras to be added in the upgrade has not yet been determined within the budget.
Councillors agreed to consult the community on the draft CCTV policy at a later date.
