Bunnell city commissioners favor installing eight surveillance cameras at various locations in the city’s south and overwhelmingly black side. One camera would be reserved for the area around the First United Methodist Church and Bank of America downtown, where the homeless gather when the cold-weather shelter there is open.

Commissioners are looking at surveillance cameras as a crime deterrent in drug-ridden zones, and as a way to expand the reach of the city police department, which is short-staffed: police officers would be able to conduct surveillance and zoom in and out on license plates, people’s faces or activity in streets or possibly through windows from their laptops, their desks or, conceivably—if they have the proper sign-ons—any computer.

The cameras would be equipped with 220x zoom capability. “We have the whole south side, the whole infested area, under surveillance with these eight cameras,” Bunnell Police Chief Arthur Jones said.

Four of five Bunnell city commission members conceptually approved of video surveillance in a recent meeting. (They didn’t vote: it was a workshop where voting is not allowed.) They didn’t question whether the system should be in place, but how, and to what extent, it should be installed, considering the costs.

Commissioner Elbert Tucker ridiculed the notion that drug dealers wouldn’t quickly adapt, and move out of sight of the cameras without leaving the area to do their business, since the cameras don’t by any means blanket the whole south side.[…]