Amazing!! Chennai city has got the highest number of CCTV cameras in the world
Posted on: 04/Jan/2021 9:11:51 AM
Virtual Private Network or VPN service provider Surfshark was recently involved in a study about 130 countries having huge populations. It has been brought out that by the study that Chennai city has got the most number of CCTV cameras per square kilometre than any other city in the world.
The amazing piece of information is that Chennai has got 657 CCTV cameras per sq km and is followed by Hyderabad city with as many as 480 cameras per sq km.
Overall, Chennai city has got the lower number of CCTV cameras of 2.8 lakh when compared to Hyderabad with 3lakhs. In terms of CCTV density, cities like Beijing with 10.1 lakh cameras and London with 6.8lakh cameras are in the top 10 cities across the world.
It must be taken into account that the number of CCTV cameras per 1000 is also lower in the Chennai city with just 25 in the top 10.
The government of TN aimed to bring the entire Chennai city under the third eye campaign and as a result of this the number of CCTV cameras increased in the last 3 years. By roping in RWA or residents welfare associations, traders associations and business enterprises etc, Chennai police have been advocating the installation of CCTV cameras.
As per a senior police officer, the department encourages large companies to indulge in their CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility activity by providing CCTV cameras. He spoke about how the CCTV cameras were playing their roles in helping the police department in the chain snatching cases. More than 60 chain snatchers were identified by these CCTV cameras in Chennai in the August-September months.
Maintenance of law and order and traffic:
It has been pointed out by the Chennai city police commissioner, Mr. Mahesh Agarwal that the CCTVs help in the maintenance of law and order and traffic. He spoke about the presence of standalone cameras that are available now to collect the footage regarding the crimes. He added that soon live streaming facilities would be added to prevent the crimes. Any fight or chain snatching would be revealed by the alerts received by the command and control centre.
A resident belonging to Anna Nagar spoke about how the CCTVs have increased the safety of the public. Fact is that many residents now support the CCTV revolution. There were also few complaints from the neighbourhoods about the CCTV cameras that were present as show pieces.
It was later highlighted by the Chennai police commissioner that the chief minister of TN has emphasised on the maintenance of these CCTV cameras and how the TN government has sanctioned funds. The privacy right activists have raised concerns over the access to footage plus on the backups, monitoring procedure and transparency regarding installation locations etc.
Point is that the CCTV cameras were not available in many police stations and efforts were not taken by the police department to install them at the police stations. This was according to an advocate belonging to NGO People’s Watch.
