In May the Tampa City Council approved spending $2 million of federal funds to pay for a closed circuit television system, intended to bolster security during the Republican National Convention later this month.
The purchase came from the $50 million in taxpayer money that Congress approved for security for the RNC; Charlotte received an additional $50 million for their security needs when the Democrats host their convention at the beginning of next month.
The city contracted Miami-based Aware Digital, Inc. to install the cameras.
Tampa police have never said how many cameras were purchased or where they would be installed for the RNC.
But a Tampa man has created a mobile app that will show you the cameras closest to where you are in the city — and where to look to see them.
Jon Gales has created rncctv.com. He's a computer programmer who says he began researching the project after learning about the installation in June. He says once he found out where all the cameras were, he got the idea about showing the nearest ones by using the compass API to point people in the correct direction.
"It's easy to complain, I prefer to be pro-active," he told CL in an email interview.
