Chennai has been recorded having the highest CCTV surveillance in the world with 657 CCTVs per square kilometres, followed by another Indian city, Hyderabad, with 480 CCTVs per square kilometre, as per an annual report of SurfShark, a virtual private network (VPN).
The VPN looked at the world’s 130 most populated cities and examined which one of them has the densest CCTV networks while also focussing on the crime index of that particular city. New Delhi, the national capital, managed to secure the eighth position in the list, with 289 CCTVs per square kilometres.
China’s six cities are listed in the top 10 cities with most CCTV density, with Harbin in third spot with 411 CCTVs, Xiamen being fifth with 385 CCTVs, followed by two more Chinese cities , Chengdu with 350 CCTVs and Taiyuan at 319 CCTVs. Beijing ranks in tenth spot as the capital of China has the highest number of CCTV cameras in total, at just over 1.1 million installed in the city. London is the only non-Asian city in the list, securing the fourth position, with 399 CCTV cameras per square kilometer.
CCTV cameras have become prevalent in cities around the globe, however, it does not mean that the cameras are recognizing every move. Usually, CCTV cameras are in a fixed position, and some of the more intrusive features of these cameras, like accompanying facial recognition technology, is not universal as of now.
Number of CCTV cameras also does not determine the crime rate of a city, for instance, China’s Xiamen and the United Kingdom’s London, where both have nearly 400 CCTV cameras, but when we look into the crime index, London is at a higher scale compared to Xiamen. Such cameras are usually more helpful in solving crimes than actually preventing them.
