Hyderabad has highest number of CCTV cameras; only 25 pc installed by govt: Report

Hyderabad: The city reportedly has the highest number of CCTV cameras in the country, but, according to a new report, only about a quarter of them have been installed by the government. The more prosperous areas were twice more likely to have CCTV camera coverage than the poorer areas.

The Status of Policing in India Report (SPIR) said 43 per cent of city residents had installed the cameras themselves, 19 per cent said resident welfare associations, six per cent named “other agencies” and another seven per cent did not know.

The report found that people from high-income residential areas were almost twice as likely to have personally installed CCTV cameras. The government was nearly three times as likely to install CCTVs in slums and poor localities.

While 31 per cent of respondents from lower-income areas said that the government had installed CCTVs in their households or residential colonies, against nine per cent from high-income groups, according to the survey.

The report was released by Common Cause India and Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). The results of the study released on March 31, also involved a focused group discussion (FGD) with domain experts, in-depth interviews with police officials, and an analysis of media coverage of surveillance-related issues.

Common Cause said it had in collaboration with the Lokniti Programme of the CSDS, conducted a face-to face survey with 9,779 individuals across 12 states and UTs to understand perceptions around digital surveillance.

According to the report, 76 per cent of city respondents reported CCTV coverage of their households and colonies, which places Hyderabad at the fourth position among 12 cities, followed by Bengaluru (94 per cent), Delhi (84) and Kolkata (78).

The survey found that high-income groups (73 per cent) and middle income groups (63 per cent) were more likely to have CCTV coverage in their residential areas, compared to slums (28 per cent) and low income groups (45 per cent).