New street cameras will soon join Merced’s array of road surveillance equipment.
Merced hotel and inn managers say the technology will help them keep their properties safe, and allow for police to solve crimes faster.
Merced Police Chief Steven Stanfield expects to install the cameras by the end of the year. The timeline depends on when the agency can order the camera parts and install them.
A $20,800 grant from the city’s Tourism Businesses Improvement District board will be used to install 17 blue-light cameras near most hotels in the city. The Merced City Council Councilmembers quickly approved the funds at a meeting earlier this month.
TBID Executive Director, Gloria Valdovinos, hopes all 19 hotels and inns in the city will eventually have a camera near them for security purposes.
The money paying for these cameras comes from the board’s tourism tax that was first implemented in 2024. Guests who rent rooms in Merced pay a 2% tax on their lodging costs. That tax is separate from the city’s tourism opportunity tax hotels are required to pay quarterly.
“(The cameras) adds another element of safety in our minds, and that’s what we want to promote,” said Robin Donovan, regional manager of downtown’s El Capitan Hotel and chair of TBID, also known as Visit Merced. “We want to promote that Merced is a safe city to come and visit.”
The new cameras include 11 blue-light cameras that will be installed on city-owned street poles. These cameras have a flashing blue light on them, and capture live images and street views. The city will oversee maintenance for those cameras, while the TBID pays for connectivity costs. An additional six cameras will be installed on private property cameras systems. After one year, the city will provide maintenance on them. Future camera funding will be evaluated during next year’s budget process.
How the new cameras fit in to Merced’s existing landscape
Merced already uses 30 cameras located around city intersections. Most blue-light cameras are located at parks, Stanfield said. That number does not include license plate reader cameras or red-light cameras. Last week, the county extended its contract with Flock, the license plate reader company, for an additional three years.
Officers at The Real Time Information Center within the Merced Police Department track incident reports from all city cameras. The cameras provide a live feed, and officers can pull up historical footage if needed.
The main goal of the cameras is to protect businesses and guests, said Lt. Jeremy Salyers, who oversees the department’s central district, which includes many of the hotels. Theft is the primary instance of crime in hotel parking lots and surrounding areas, he said.
The cameras do not have the ability to read license plates, and footage is only stored for two weeks, according to Salyers.
“We make sure the cameras are not pointing into anyone’s private residence,” Salyers said. “We are mainly just capturing public areas.”
Why hotel managers want the cameras
Not every hotel in Merced currently has surveillance cameras at the entrance of the establishments, Donovan said. The new cameras will provide extra eyes in case of any criminal activity.
Both Highway 99 and Highway 140 surround the main hub of lodges in Merced at Motel Drive. There will be six privately-owned cameras coming to the hotels here. While the cameras will not track highway traffic, they will be able to capture the areas in front of hotels.
The private cameras will be installed on a hotel’s property, instead of a street pole, Valdovinos, the TBID executive director, said. The board is still figuring out next steps for installing the private cameras.
Hotel managers on the TBID board are looking forward to the new cameras.
Nitin Kumar is the general manager of Courtyard Marriott. In his six years overseeing the hotel, he said, people have driven into parking lots and stolen property from vehicles.
“(The cameras) would really help the law enforcement to pinpoint who those people are,” Kumar said.
Last week, a few steps away from the entrance of El Capitan, yellow tape was strung from the fence in front of the patio at Native Son. The hotel’s regional manager Donovan recalled a car driving into the fence earlier this month. A street camera would have identified the car sooner, she said.
