Police will use the security cameras bought for last summer's Republican National Convention to monitor activities downtown for at least the next year.

The guidelines echo the Tampa Police Department's rules governing the use of cameras that already are monitoring Ybor City's party crowds on the weekends, Police Chief Jane Castor told the council.

The camera issue has pitched the council – where some members question whether to keep using the cameras – against Mayor Bob Buckhorn, who has said the cameras fall completely within his authority and he'll use them as he sees fit.
The city charter blocks the council from dictating how the mayor uses his staff or its equipment. It wouldn't ban council members from legislating broadly against surveillance, however.
That could come up next fall, when the city's maintenance contract for the RNC cameras comes up for renewal. Council members plan to review the use of the cameras next August.

Castor assured council members the cameras will be used with discretion.

He believes the court was similarly wrong in barring warrantless wiretapping.

"That's simply contrary to the text of the Fourth Amendment, which never protected privacy in some broad sense," he said. "It's very specific [in barring unreasonable searches only of] persons, houses, papers and effects."