Comparitech publishes new study of CCTV surveillance in the most populated cities in the United States

Comparitech today published a new study of CCTV surveillance in the most populated cities in the United States.

From monitoring traffic to preventing crime, closed-circuit television (#CCTV) cameras have a range of purposes. But with increasingly-high resolutions, more remote access to live video streams, and the utilization of technologies like facial recognition and Ring doorbell cameras – just how much is too much when it comes to police #surveillance? To find out which of the most populated cities in the US are under the most surveillance, researchers looked at the number of fixed CCTV cameras, the number of cameras accessed through real-time crime centers, the number of private cameras within the police force’s network, cameras on public transport facilities, traffic cameras, and streetlight cameras. They also looked at whether or not the police department in question was utilizing Ring doorbell technology which gives them access to private cameras installed outside the public’s homes.

The researchers were able to source data on 39 of the 50 most populated cities (based on Census.gov data), finding:

• Nearly 270,000 cameras monitoring a population of 44.2 million people. This gives an average ratio of 6 cameras per 1,000 people
• Atlanta was the most surveilled city with a ratio of 48.93 cameras per 1,000 people
• Chicago had the highest number of cameras in total: 32,000
• 28 of the police departments have access to Ring doorbell technology and have submitted a total of 728 requests for access to footage between them

Based on the number of cameras per 1,000 people, these are the most surveilled cities in the United States:

1. Atlanta, Georgia – 24,800 cameras for 506,811 people = 48.93 cameras per 1,000 people
2. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 28,064 cameras for 1,584,064 people = 17.72 cameras per 1,000 people
3. Denver, Colorado – 12,273 cameras for 727,211 people = 16.88 cameras per 1,000 people
4. Washington, District of Columbia – 11,441 cameras for 705,749 people = 16.21 cameras per 1,000 people
5. San Francisco, California – 14,266 cameras for 881,549 people = 16.18 cameras per 1,000 people
6. Las Vegas, Nevada – 10,208 cameras for 651,319 people = 15.67 cameras per 1,000 people
7. Detroit, Michigan – 8,836 cameras for 670,031 people = 13.19 cameras per 1,000 people
8. Chicago, Illinois – 32,000 cameras for 2,693,976 people = 11.88 cameras per 1,000 people
9. Portland, Oregon – 6,411 cameras for 654,741 people = 9.79 cameras per 1,000 people
10. Fresno, California – 4,706 cameras for 531,576 people = 8.85 cameras per 1,000 people