There's a new pair of eyes in the sky that will be watching over the cul-de-sac end of The Strand in Tauranga.

Tauranga City Council has installed a new CCTV camera on the corner of The Strand and McLean Street in an effort to curb the rising number of public disorder incidents and liquor ban breaches.

A new CCTV camera was installed on the corner of The Strand and McLean Street in Tauranga on Wednesday. Photos: Daniel Hines.

Transport Operations Centre senior traffic systems engineer Richard Eaton says up until the installation of the camera on Wednesday morning, coverage in the area had been poor.

'We're careful about where we install cameras to make sure we're not deliberately invading people's privacies.

'But where we see growing issues like what's happening down The Strand, we're obliged to look at different ways of what we can do, and CCTV is one of those options.”

Richard says the new camera costs about $2500 and is identical to the CCTV camera used widely across the city since 1994.

Not only is the camera very good in low light, they also have a 150 metre infrared beam installed which can 'light up an area like it was daylight”.

'They also have a 30-times optical zoom range so it can clearly capture a person's face from up to 150m away.”

He concedes the topic of CCTV camera and their use can be somewhat controversial amongst people, adding: 'you get a real variance of what people think about CCTV”.

Some will see them as an invasion of privacy, others will be glad they're installed because they've captured an incident, he says.

'Cameras form part of our larger surveillance for transport operations and use them for a whole range of activities, as well as and including crime prevention.”