750 cameras and one vote

and the fight at city hall is about the footage.

Anchorage police want a 600,000 dollar upgrade that ties up to 750 cameras into one system. Traffic cameras, officer cameras, drone cameras, and private security cameras, all on the same screens.

More than 250 of those are traffic cameras already up on Anchorage streets. The package also includes license plate readers, which log where a car was and when.

Three Assembly members say the city's rules were written before any of this existed. They've put up an ordinance that would delete most footage after two weeks unless it's tied to an active case.

It would limit plate readers to traffic work and specific searches, like a missing child or a stolen vehicle. Sharing data with federal agencies would take a warrant, and adding artificial intelligence would need Assembly approval first.

For most of us that's the whole question. Not whether a camera sees you at Northern Lights and Seward, but how long that clip sits on a server afterward.

The money isn't coming out of property taxes. It's federal and state fine and forfeiture funds.

The Assembly takes it up on Tuesday, September first.