Police approached the Invercargill City Council more than a year ago, wanting a new CCTV system installed in the city centre.
Council agreed to replace the old cameras which were not working properly.
The infrastructure committee was asked to approve a policy around the cameras at a meeting on Tuesday. Minor amendments will be made to the policy and it will be presented to the full council for approval in a couple of weeks.
The committee was told the system would be able to store images for 90 days but could be requested by police to hold on to images for longer if they were investigating a crime.
Deputy mayor Tom Campbell asked who deleted the images after 90 days — whether it was done automatically or a human was involved. It was to be deleted automatically.
Mr Clark asked if the cameras could be used for traffic infringement.
He said that was not their purpose and they would be entering an absolute minefield as the policy was quite broad.
He questioned if someone was assaulted in Dee St after walking out of a licensed area obviously in a drunken state, could the CCTV operations be used by the police. ‘‘Is that allowed? Can you use a camera to ask the licensee?’’ he asked.
Council infrastructure group manager Erin Moogan said the council was not discussing the operations of the cameras but the policy set around them.
Cr Darren Ludlow said people wanted cameras to keep them safe and stop crime.
The council was storing footage when the police were looking at live footage, Mr Clark said.
Mr Clark said two groups were subject to the cameras — the group that wanted to be safe and cameras helped that, and those that worried about their privacy.
"We will get legal challenges the moment we step outside what these groups think are acceptable."
Cr Lesley Soper said the seven guides the policy had covered for the use of the cameras were a sensible set of policies.
The committee agreed to accept these policies.
