CCTV On Track For December 2023

Invercargill’s CCTV upgrade will be all systems go starting in December, as the new technology begins to be implemented.

General manager of infrastructure Erin Moogan told the Infrastructure Committee meeting yesterday that there would be two streams of work overlapping the network design, as well as the delivery, and there was a small amount of risk involved. Related: Council To Get Cracking On Waste Minimisation

With councillors indicating months ago to staff the urgency of the new cameras, particularly in the CBD, the initial budget was increased from $250,000 to $450,000 for stage one, and the remaining $1 million to be funded through the long-term plan.

The network design under way at present involves building the data network of fibre and wireless solutions for the onsite cameras to link into a storage device.

Mana whenua representative Evelyn Cook said they needed to not lose sight of the fact that one of the triggering events for the upgrade was the violent death of a young person in Don St in April 2022.

“We didn’t have the resources to identify who did that initially, because our CCTV was not up to scratch.”

Mayor Clark reminded the council that the priority has always been for the CBD to be started on first, and then Invercargill Police included arterial roads in and out of the city – for license plate identification of offenders.

He said ‘hot spots’ had also since been included, such as Stead St and Otatara at the beach, which would be implemented at a later date.

The CCTV technology is scheduled for commissioning between December and February in thee CBD, with South City and Bluff to follow in February and March.