- Kable, Tuesday 22 December 2009 00.05 GMT
Freedom of Information requests from campaign group Big Brother Watch found that UK councils controlled 59,753 cameras in October 2009, although 3,376 were for internal use. It said that a survey by academics in 1999 had suggested councils then had 21,000 cameras, suggesting numbers have tripled since then.
The FoI responses revealed big differences in numbers of cameras controlled by individual councils. Portsmouth City Council and Nottinghamshire CC both ran 1,454, Fife Council controlled 1,350 and Nottingham City Council had 1,326.
Portsmouth was also near the top of a list of cameras adjusted for daytime population: it had 7.8 cameras for each 1,000 people in its area during the day, based on the 2001 Census. Eilean Siar Council (the Outer Hebrides) topped the list with 214 cameras, 8.3 for each 1,000 people, while other big per capita users included Dundee, with 893 cameras (6.1), Woking with 528 (5.9) and South Lanarkshire with 106 (5.6).
The national average was one camera per 1,000. Some unitary urban councils had significantly fewer than this, with Reading controlling just seven cameras in total (0.05 per 1,000 people), Milton Keynes having 53 (0.3 per 1,000), York running 73 (0.4), Leeds having 385 cameras (0.5), and Manchester having 236 (0.6).
Portsmouth defended its heavy use of CCTV. "We strongly believe that CCTV cameras make residents and visitors feel safe, and protect them from crime," said chief executive David Williams. "We do not have a history of complaints from residents about the cameras. Quite the opposite – residents regularly contact the council requesting more CCTV cameras in their housing estate.
"If we look at similar cities, we do not have problems with knife crime or gang culture," he added. "We are one of the few cities where violent crime is falling and the overall number of crimes has fallen by 12% in the last two years. CCTV plays an important role in deterring and convicting criminals."
The city said that it has 1,462 CCTV cameras, with 150 used for public surveillance, 1,300 for community safety within council housing and 12 for traffic control. It added that more than 18,905 arrests have been made in the city where cameras have collected evidence for prosecution.
