The latest rankings reveal stark contrasts between cities and towns.
While lagging far behind global leader China, Great Britain and Northern Ireland are in the five most observed nations on the planet, with 5million closed-circuit television cameras across all member countries.
However, not every town is filmed equally. According to a Freedom of Information request by Get Licensed, which took in the number of CCTV cameras in operation across the 50 most populated towns and cities, Swindon can be considered something of a blackspot. Across the authority, there are just 44 devices per 100,000 residents.
‘CCTV cameras are an invaluable tool in crime prevention, acting as deterrents to opportunists looking to steal or damage the property of others. It’s been suggested that buildings without CCTV cameras are five times more likely to be burgled than those with these systems,’ said Shahzad Ali, Chief Executive and Security Expert at Get Licensed.
‘Not only are CCTV cameras an aid in preventing crime, but they are also an important tool in solving it. They can be used to track missing people, identify criminals, and aid victims in their fight for justice,’ the continued. ‘However, as we can see from this study, there are still black spots in this CCTV coverage.’
According to a separate study conducted by Guard Mark Security, London (690,000), Birmingham (88,000), and Leeds (60,000) are the three most CCTV-surveilled cities in Britain. In 2022, Get Licensed revealed that Eden and North Norfolk had the least number of cameras in operation, with just 0.6 and 0.1 CCTV devices per 100,000 people.
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