Hundreds more cameras watching city residents
Simon Carter
Portsmouth residents are being watched by hundreds more CCTV cameras than they were in 2019.
CCTV cameras have become ubiquitous in the UK's public spaces, with the country one of the most surveilled in the world. Figures obtained through freedom of information requests by Ironmongery Direct show there were 1,997 cameras controlled by Portsmouth City Council in the summer of 2022. That figure is up 31% from 1,530 in 2019, with the area having among the most cameras of any where in the UK.
Across The News’ region, the increases were much smaller - cameras controlled by Gosport Borough Council rose from 38 in 2019 to 40 in 2022. There was also a plus two increase in Fareham (44 to 46) and plus three in H avant (24 to 27).
Data from local authorities that provided figures for both years shows the number of cameras used across the UK has increased 15% over three years, from 79,022 to 91,081.
Councils were asked how many CCTV cameras they had in operation as of July 2022, and how many they operated in 2019. Of the 384 local authoritiesacross the UK ,311 were able to provide data for both years, and a further 31 provided figures for 2022 alone.
Corps Monitoring, a security firm, said that the national rise in CCTV may be due to a fall in the cost of equipment in recent years, alongside the wider availability of high-speed internet. The London Borough of Hackney had the highest number of cameras of any local authority in the UK, with 3,119– also holding the top spot in 2019.
Meanwhile Gwynedd, in Wales, saw the largest increase (363%) in the number of CCTV cameras of anywhere in the UK.
Of the councils that were able to provide data, seven in 10 had increased their surveillance, with 16 more than doubling their CCTV presence.
Big Brother Watch, a group that campaigns against public surveillance, said that the number of CCTV cameras on the UK's streets is ‘out of control’, and raised concerns about the potential use of facial recognition to track people.
The use of facial recognition by some UK police forces has sparked controversy in recentyears, with groups including Big Brother Watch saying they are worried about the potential for bias and racial profiling through the technology. There is little available evidence on whether facial recognition is also being used by local authorities.