DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Daytona Beach leaders are moving forward with their plan to install more lighting and security cameras throughout the city.
They said the project should help enhance safety for residents and tourists.
The upgraded lights and cameras will be added throughout most of the city over the next few years but the area around Seabreeze Boulevard will see them installed much sooner.
“This area has needed more security for a long time because of intrusion into the neighborhoods on Friday and Saturday nights,” Commissioner Ken Strickland said.
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Fights, crime and unruly people—that’s what Strickland hopes to deter in his district that includes Seabreeze, the entertainment area that butts up against a historic neighborhood.
“I’ve committed $80,000 of ARPA funds, also known as COVID funds, to this project. Some of that will also go to Collins Park up behind the fire station,” he said.
Strickland said residents in this area really started pushing for them after Bike Week in 2022. That’s when police said a man, identified as Jean Macean, fatally stabbed a couple who were riding bicycles home on Wild Olive Avenue. Detectives identified him using business and home security cameras.
Strickland said police will have real-time access to the new cameras.
“I think the cameras will help a lot with solving crimes initially at night up and down Seabreeze here, and later on, act as a deterrent,” he said.
City Manager Deric Feacher added he wants to expand these security measures across the city and said officials are looking to install upward of 200 cameras on many of Daytona Beach’s major intersections and roads.
Feacher estimated the cameras, upgraded street lighting and power will cost $2.5 to $3.5 million and he plans to budget it each year until the project’s done.
“It’s not something that’s going to happen overnight but will be part of our strategic plan over the next few years,” he said.
Feacher added they hope to transform the lighting in many areas to look more like Beach Street downtown, which was just renovated.
As far as the cameras, he said the ones placed in neighborhoods will not impede on residents’ privacy.
“When you’re in the public, you’re in the public. That’s the key thing but we don’t want to have people thinking that there’s a camera on their front door,” Feacher said.
As for the area around Seabreeze, Strickland said they will start purchasing and installing everything once it’s officially approved by the commission. He expects it to go to a vote within the next few meetings.
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