Doncaster one of UK's most monitored places with more than 1,700 CCTV cameras

New figures show that Big Brother certainly is watching people in Doncaster – with the city eighth on a list of British towns and cities with a large number of cameras.

Doncaster was ranked eighth with a total of 1,720 cameras – with only Hackney, Hillingdon, South Lanarkshire, City of Edinburgh, Portsmouth, Hammersmith and Fulham and Wolverhampton councils ahead.

The new research used Freedom of Information requests to reveal the CCTV statistics for each UK local authority.

The study by IronmongeryDirect found that some local authorities have more than quadrupled their CCTV surveillance since 2019.

Almost seven in ten (69%) councils have increased their number of cameras over the last three years.

The study found there are now 12,960 more CCTV cameras in the UK than there were three years ago and that Gwynedd and Wokingham councils have both upped their CCTV installations by over 300%.

Across the UK, there are now 108,533 public cameras, representing an increase of 14%. This doesn’t include privately owned equipment, such as cameras operated by businesses or members of the public, so the overall total will be even greater.

The biggest numerical increase was found in Liverpool, where there are now 741 more cameras than there were in 2019 (754 up to 1,495).

The London Borough of Hackney, however, has the highest level of surveillance. The council controls 3,119 CCTV devices, which is 815 more than any other local authority.

IronmongeryDirect spoke to Grant Fulton, CMC Operations Manager at Corps Monitoring, who predicts that the number of CCTV cameras in the UK will continue to increase:

“As technology continues to advance, so too will the application of CCTV monitoring systems. Over the next few years, CCTV technology will improve our personal safety, the safety of our homes, businesses, assets, and far more.

Dominick Sandford, Managing Director at IronmongeryDirect, said: “CCTV is an integral part of modern-day society, and cameras have grown more commonplace in recent years as technology and connectivity have improved.

“The increases revealed in our research might raise privacy concerns, but generally CCTV benefits the safety and security of both the public and businesses, and the upwards trend is unlikely to stop anytime soon.”