Construction crews are preparing to install dozens of cameras that will line the streets of Vancouver, B.C., during the 2010 Winter Olympics - despite the objections of civil liberties advocates.
"For the Olympic period, it could be as many as 40 or 60 cameras," Vancouver emergency management director Kevin Wallinger said.
A central control hub will be constructed to monitor the closed-circuit television cameras, but officials say they will only be up temporarily.
"We may redeploy them as traffic cameras, or they would be put into storage and used again for any other major event or special event," Wallinger said.
But while the cameras are considered temporary and mobile, the wires being installed to facilitate the cameras will be permanent - a legacy of the Games that worries civil liberty experts.
"We want to know what they're going to do with the cameras," Michael Vonn of the BC Civil Liberties Association said Monday.
"Right now there are so many grey areas, and our inability to get any information out."
Security expert Andre Gerolymatos says the camera's won't do anyone any harm - but may not do much good, either.
"It won't prevent a terrorist attack," he said. "The only good use for it would be to catch it on camera for after the fact."
The city maintains that monitoring crowds will allow a more timely response in the event of any disaster.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Sarah Galashan
