The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved a $9.7 million contract that will add cameras to a citywide network of video equipment used by police.

“We have to be intentional with how we’re approaching public safety, and at a certain point it has to become personal for the people who live in our communities,” Councilor LaTonya Tate said. “If people feel like they can go out in broad daylight and start shooting, at what point does that become personal for everyone else who lives here? We have to sit down and have these hard conversations and get to a point of healing and reconciliation. That’s how we move forward because we all want the same thing.”

The council unanimously approved the contract with Alabama Power Co. for the installation of public safety video equipment. According to city staff, the cameras will be placed on existing APC infrastructure and will provide live feeds to the Birmingham Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center.

The contract is for an additional 20 months of service, an extension of the original agreement. More than $4 million of the $9.7 million contract will come from the U.S. Department of Justice. The city’s portion will be paid in regular installments over the course of the contract extension, according to city staff.

The council initially took up the measure July 1, but members delayed the decision, hoping to get more information on the extra costs. The council held a special called meeting Monday in which city staff as well as the police chief answered questions about the agreement.