Inside look at downtown Fort Myers’ new camera control center

FORT MYERS, Fla.- Multiple screens showing dozens of high-resolution images of downtown Fort Myers are housed in the new control center at the Fort Myers Police Department for the city’s security camera system.

“I find that they are very well hidden and that I feel very safe down here now,” said Astrid Wilhelm.

Forty-nine new surveillance cameras now watch over the streets of downtown Fort Myers.

“You can definitely see them, I think it makes people feel safe more than anything,” said Kyle Sullivan.

“If something happens down there, we are going to have a recording of it,” said Fort Myers Police Interim Chief Dennis Eads.

The cameras record everything and are ontrolled by dispatchers using computers. Once a call comes in, they can take a live look at the situation.

“As long as they are using them to watch every single person, 24 hours a day, I don’t see a problem with it,” said Sullivan.

“Who wants people watching you all the time? It is horrible. It is a restriction of our freedom,” said another person downtown.

Eads says the goal is to have the cameras spread out across the entire city. Not only will the cameras help detectives solve crimes, it will also speed up the process.

“Anything we can do to cut down time spent investigating cases; the quicker the bad guys go to jail, or girls, and the quicker victims get some type of peace, and the quicker the detectives or officers can move on to different cases,” said Eads.