Residents in Wellington's inner city want more CCTV cameras around the capital, including the stretch between Westpac Stadium and Courtenay Place.

Police have come in to support the bid for a better camera network while the council said it would consider it if there was a proven need.

Inner City Residents' Association committee member Sarah Webb said the number of council run CCTV cameras should be doubled in the city.

At present there are just 12 city safety cameras dotted around Wellington.

She said there were too many gaps in the current network, which allowed trouble makers to slip out of sight.

“If you were having a really useful system, you would also have those main routes that feed into the entertainment areas under surveillance. Like for people catching the train or it might be university students coming down from The Terrace.”

Webb said one of those routes should include the stretch between Westpac Stadium and Courtenay Place.

“You could identify perhaps a person or a group of people who could potentially cause trouble for either themselves or others.

“Then you would be able to just keep an eye on those people as they move say from the stadium and into town.”

Westpac Stadium CEO Shane Harmon said he supported the idea for more cameras surrounding the stadium.

So much so, the camera network within the stadium’s bowl is already in the midst of an overhaul.

By Christmas, every single seat will be under constant surveillance.

“They are fixed cameras which allow us to continually record every seat within the stadium but at the same time we can zoom into any particular area while still recording everything else that’s going on around it,” Harmon said.

Last year 25 cameras were installed in the stadium’s car park in a move to boost security.

Inspector Terry van Dillen said police supported the move to have more cameras in their network.

“It would be nice to have cameras along some of our major thoroughfares where we have a lot of people walking.”

Van Dillen said police were working to create one coordinated CCTV hub where they could monitor all cameras in the city, not just council ones.

He said there were cameras already installed along the waterfront but they were only monitored sporadically.

“There are cameras out there and there’s a possibility of linking into some of those cameras.”

Another option under investigation by police is the use of flexible mobile cameras, which can be temporarily installed for certain events.  

Van Dillen said people’s right to privacy would be taken into consideration as police make moves to secure more cameras.

“Most of the public don’t mind it because at the end of the day if they’re not doing anything wrong, they don’t mind the cameras there.”

Wellington City Council community services manager Jenny Rains said there was a long process to negotiate the installation of new council owned CCTV cameras.

“There’s no concrete plans, no. If there’s a need showing then we would consider it, go through a process determining if CCTV cameras are appropriate and then we would implement that.”