Dennis Seo is vice chair of the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands and general manager of the Pacific Islands Club.
THE Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands does not support House Bill 23-63 or the Digital Closed Circuit Television Camera Act of 2023, HANMI Vice Chair Dennis Seo said.
HANMI understands the importance of CCTVs, he added. “But somehow, we believe this bill is misdirected. Crimes mostly occur at tourist sites and not at hotels. This is a good initiative, we understand its purpose and intention, but CCTVs should be installed…at tourist sites, for the tourists’ safety.”
Introduced by Rep. Julie Ogo, H.B. 23-63 proposes to require all businesses in the CNMI to install colored CCTV cameras on their premises, specifically in all access points, all exit points and all check-out counter points to continuously record 24 hours a day and seven days a week. It would also require that all recordings be safely and securely retained for 60 days.
Echoing the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, Seo said “the CCTV bill is problematic and will be a financial burden for hotel operators.”
“The bill is good in some respect,” he added. “However…at this point in time, hotel operators have not fully recovered and are just getting back on track to full recovery. The…concern is about the cost. We have to pay for new equipment, installation and maintenance. Holding video recordings for more than 60 days also requires us to have a bigger server,” he said.
“On top of that, there is also a very limited workforce who can handle and maintain CCTV or surveillance cameras. We don’t even know if we have that kind of workforce here,” Seo added.
“It would be a huge financial burden — very significant for the additional costs of installation in the exit, entry, counter areas, and the grace period is only 120 days to comply. We believe this is insufficient. [We need to] purchase a system and hire a contractor for installation — personally we don’t know how to record and save recording so we also have to go through training.”
Seo added, “It would require a lot of investment, depending on the size of the business establishment.”
