CUTLER BAY (CBS4) ― Cutler Bay town council members vote Wednesday night on a law that requires exterior security cameras to be trained on the parking lots of malls and strip shopping centers. The ordinance would apply to businesses with 25 or more parking spaces.

Proponents of mandatory, exterior security cameras say it’s a no-brainer, that the cameras deter crime and help police solve crime.

“Look at the homeless man who was beaten up in Fort Lauderdale,” Councilman Ernest Sochin told CBS4’s Gary Nelson. “They caught the kids that did it, because they did it in front of a surveillance camera.”

Sochin believes security cameras to be an essential police tool.

“When police are called to investigate a crime, the first thing they ask is, ‘is there a camera around here?’” Sochin said.

A similar security camera ordinance has been proposed in Broward County. It was prompted by the August, 2007 murder of Sheriff’s Sgt. Chris Reyka. The deputy was gunned down in the parking lot of a drug store that had an outside camera, but the shooting happened in an area of the parking lot the camera could not see.

The proposed law in Cutler Bay would require that businesses have systems that would cover the entire parking area. And the law would require that the video be of high quality, not the grainy, black and white or fuzzy video that some security systems produce.

Town leaders say the Cutler Bay police unit approached them about a mandatory camera law. Cops were worried about a high number of parking lot crimes detracting from neighborhood patrols.

“We’re spending too much time responding to activity at retail facilities,” Town Manager Steve Alexander said, “as opposed to spending more time in the residential districts.”

Vice-Mayor Ed MacDougall, a former police officer, opposes the mandatory security cameras. He sees them as an unfair imposition by government on private businesses.

“You can’t force a security camera on everyone’s front door,” MacDougall told CBS4’s Nelson.

MacDougall says believes government and police should work with businesses to help protect their customers, but not mandate expensive gadgetry.

“I think it comes down to basic, personal freedoms,” MacDougall said.

The Florida Retail Federation has opposed the Cutler Bay ordinance, and the American Civil Liberties Union has expressed reservations about it. The ACLU thinks the law should include provisions to protect citizens from unlawful or inappropriate uses of the security videos.

The surveillance camera ordinance comes up for a final vote at the Cutler Bay town council meeting that starts at 7 p.m. in the South Dade Library, 10750 SW 211th street.