Six U.S. cities have ranked among the top 50 “most surveilled” cities in the world in a recent Comparitech report, based on the number of private and government security cameras in each municipality.
Out of the top ten most surveilled cities, eight are in China; Chonquing ranks first in the world with 168 cameras for every thousand residents. Atlanta, Ga. is the only U.S. city in the top ten, ranking tenth with 15.56 cameras for every thousand residents. Five other U.S. cities are among the top 50 most surveilled: Chicago (13 cameras per thousand residents), Washington, D.C. (5.6 cameras), and San Francisco, San Diego, and Boston (>3 cameras).
Police departments use the cameras in their cities in different ways. San Diego police don’t constantly monitor feeds, but instead use cameras in individual cases, saying they have utilized video to solve 164 crimes since August 2018. Atlanta’s police department, by contrast, has a Video Integration Center that monitors a network of cameras 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Over 90 percent of those cameras aren’t actually owned by the city, but are integrated from a number of public and private sources.
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