How Many Cctv Cameras In London 2018

How many CCTV Cameras are there in London?

Research by CCTV.co.uk concludes that in London in that location is now ane CCTV Camera for every 13 people, meaning there are at present 691,000 CCTV Cameras in London (2020/21)

London is often chosen the CCTV majuscule of the globe, and for good reason. The city is home to hundreds of thousands of CCTV cameras, and the average Londoner is defenseless on CCTV 300 times a mean solar day.

Nosotros can say with some certainty that London is i of the most heavily monitored cities in the world, simply putting an exact effigy on the number of CCTV cameras is much trickier. London's CCTV is a mixture of authorities surveillance, business organisation security, and private home cctv systems endemic by individuals.

Different types of CCTV are logged differently and some practice not have to exist registered at all, significant that any figure is bound to be a 'guesstimate.' Fifty-fifty so, in that location are a number of sources nosotros tin use to make our approximate every bit educated as possible.

There are now 691,000 CCTV cameras in London

A quick Google search of "How many CCTV cameras are there in London?" will often provide a figure of effectually 500,000. This number comes from a 2002 survey past writers Michael McCahill and Clive Norris, but the survey has been heavily criticised for not using a wide enough sample. Even if the survey's methodology is solid, the number would be extremely outdated past at present. London'due south population has risen by nigh 2 million people since 2002, so a comparable rising in cameras is probable.

How many authorities cameras are there?

When trying to make an educated guess as to the total number of CCTV cameras in the capital, we should start with the information nosotros are sure of. Cameras owned and operated by government bodies are a matter of public record, and so nosotros can use these figures with a degree of certainty. Ship for London uses a total of 15,516 cameras across the tube network, and the Metropolitan Police has a further 110.

The City of London Council is known to operate 651 cameras, and a BBC survey of 2009 found that there were 7,431 surveillance cameras in use beyond all the local councils in Greater London.

So far, this gives us a total of 23,708 cameras – a ridiculously low number if yous've ever walked around central London. But these official figures just evidence usa a minor part of the picture show.

The vast majority of London's CCTV cameras are not government-controlled merely are instead owned and operated by individual individuals and businesses. Cameras on business premises must be registered with the ICO (Information commissioner's office) but, in a change to previous laws, domestic CCTV cameras do not accept to be registered if they only capture images within the owner's holding. This means that in that location are potentially hundreds of thousands of unregistered private CCTV cameras in London, making the job even harder.

So, how many dwelling CCTV cameras are in that location in London?

This is the one thousand thousand-dollar question and, unfortunately, there's no easy way to reply it. A good starting bespeak is a 2015 report by the British Security Industry Association. Although this report doesn't attempt to requite the total number of cameras in London, information technology contains a very useful estimate of how the number of individual cameras compares to the number of government cameras. The BSIA believe that private cameras could outnumber public cameras past equally much as lxx to 1. It is worth noting that this survey was based on the unabridged country. From what we already know almost London's surveillance levels, it is likely that the capital will fall on the loftier finish of this gauge. Based on our previous effigy of 23,708 public cameras, an estimate of 70 times equally many private cameras would give u.s. a figure of 536,447. Calculation these together would give u.s.a. a total of 560,155 – not far off the McCahill and Norris estimate nosotros mentioned earlier.

This still seems low because that 18 years take passed since that survey, and London has experienced one of the biggest population and property booms in its history in the meantime. Using population growth to estimate camera growth is non a bad strategy, and the BSIA study tin assistance u.s. here too. The report suggests that, in the Uk as a whole, there is an boilerplate of ane camera for every 14 people. Information technology too estimates that, in the busiest areas, this number rises to 1 camera for every 11 people. We tin can comfortably assume that London fits into the "busiest areas" category, and so using the one in 11 gauge seems sensible. At final count, the population of London was 9,304,000. Dividing this by 11 gives us an guess of 845,818 cameras in the capital.

London though isn't all the CBD area, information technology is fabricated upwards of many sprawling suburbs. And so, CCTV.co.uk thinks we can safely downgrade the effigy to 1 photographic camera for every xiii residents – this would give the states a figure of 691,000 cameras in London (area) in 2020/21.

This figure is far from sure but, based on what we know near the number of cameras in 2002 and the metropolis's growth since and then, it seems to be a sensible estimate. If nosotros continue to see surveillance levels increasing in line with population levels, we can expect the number of CCTV cameras in the capital letter to pass 1,000,000 in the next 5 years.

Posted Wednesday 18th Nov 2020