OCEANSIDE, Calif. (KGTV) -- An initiative to make downtown Oceanside safer was approved Wednesday.
The Oceanside City Council voted unanimously in favor of a $500,000 plan to purchase and install over 50 surveillance cameras in the downtown area.
Oceanside Police Department officials said the cameras will not be monitored 24 hours a day, but they can view past footage if an issue or crime is captured on video.
Camera recordings will be saved for a year, and there will also be signage posted to make people aware if they are in an area under surveillance.
“I think it will be a good use of tech,” Oceanside Police Chief Fred Armijo said. “We chose especially this core downtown area because of the core concentration of crime that we’ve seen in the past handful of years.”
The City of San Diego had a similar program in place, but it was eventually halted after many residents raised privacy and oversight concerns.
