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Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places in the World

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Re: Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places in the World

#11
post #4

Per capita doesn't matter for cameras, you care about per area and arguably, coverage/holes, since 10 cameras pointing at one location/direction is (often) less informative than one well placed camera. Indoors also matters a lot. To this end, I'm really surprised that NYC doesn't make the list, given 9/11.

But what if so many cities have blanket "coverage", that you can't really differentiate. I mean, what if there is not enough separation between cities by that metric to make a meaningful list? I'd bet that not only the large cities, but the small cities as well would have almost blanket coverage. Small places like Key West, DC, Miami Beach, etc would all tie with the big cities for 1st. Just because the percentage of city blocks covered is so high in lots of places like that.

Re: Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places in the World

#13
post #9

Top 20 1. Chongqing, China – 2,579,890 cameras for 15,354,067 people = 168.03 cameras per 1,000 people 2. Shenzhen, China – 1,929,600 cameras for 12,128,721 people = 159.09 cameras per 1,000 people 3. Shanghai, China – 2,985,984 cameras for 26,317,104 people = 113.46 cameras per 1,000 people 4. Tianjin, China – 1,244,160 cameras for 13,396,402 people = 92.87 cameras per 1,000 people 5. Ji’nan, China – 540,463 cameras…

Worth noting that the proportion of the Atlanta metro area that is actually within the city proper Atlanta is MUCH lower than the other locations on this list. Atlanta is about 9%. London is about 60%. I'm guessing the cameras per person in Atlanta drops if you measure across the most densely populated 60% of the metro area.

Re: Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places in the World

#14

Atlanta Chicago Washington D.C. San Francisco San Diego Boston

Rank Location #/1000 residents

10 Atlanta, United States 15.56

13 Chicago, United States 13.06

29 Washington, D.C., United States 5.61

38 San Francisco, United States 3.07

43 San Diego, United States 2.48

46 Boston, United States 2.23

Re: Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places in the World

#16

My first thought was: how is NYC not on this list since it has cameras on every block, and has for decades. And then I saw this: "Atlanta was the only place in the U.S. to crack the top ten, with 15.56 cameras per thousand residents." So they are looking at cameras per 1000 residents. This seems like the wrong way to count. If you point a camera at a block, you see everyone on that block whether there is one person o…

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Re: Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places in the World

#17
post #4

Per capita doesn't matter for cameras, you care about per area and arguably, coverage/holes, since 10 cameras pointing at one location/direction is (often) less informative than one well placed camera. Indoors also matters a lot. To this end, I'm really surprised that NYC doesn't make the list, given 9/11.

> per capita doesn't matter for cameras You mean it may not matter. In practice, it is probably proportional to cameras per area, so it would matter.

As he said you can have 10 cameras pointing at one thing and know less information than one good placement...

If indoor cameras count in this statistic then that throws off what is being watched, the people or the property for insurance purposes.

Re: Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places in the World

#19

My first thought was: how is NYC not on this list since it has cameras on every block, and has for decades. And then I saw this: "Atlanta was the only place in the U.S. to crack the top ten, with 15.56 cameras per thousand residents." So they are looking at cameras per 1000 residents. This seems like the wrong way to count. If you point a camera at a block, you see everyone on that block whether there is one person o…

Yeah, it also conflates private/publicly owned cameras. As someone who lives in London, I think we get unfairly portrayed as a surveillance state, because really the vast majority of cameras are inside shops and businesses, not on the street, and not connected to any central databank. I personally don't find cameras like these troubling. Once you get out of central London, most streets don't have cameras on them.

Re: Six U.S. Cities Make the List of Most Surveilled Places in the World

#20
post #9

Top 20 1. Chongqing, China – 2,579,890 cameras for 15,354,067 people = 168.03 cameras per 1,000 people 2. Shenzhen, China – 1,929,600 cameras for 12,128,721 people = 159.09 cameras per 1,000 people 3. Shanghai, China – 2,985,984 cameras for 26,317,104 people = 113.46 cameras per 1,000 people 4. Tianjin, China – 1,244,160 cameras for 13,396,402 people = 92.87 cameras per 1,000 people 5. Ji’nan, China – 540,463 cameras…

How deep was this list? I expect that places like Quantico Virginia might have more cameras. Quanitico has a population of around 500 people, but it right beside bases for the Army, FBI, DEA ... basically everyone that really really likes cameras.
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