Despite claiming the title of the world’s bastion of freedom, the U.S. doesn’t always feel so free. It’s no secret that government and corporate surveillance in this country has gotten a little out of hand in recent years — and, according to some studies, Americans consistently rank as some of the world’s most surveilled people. One study published last year showed that America actually ranks #2 in surveillance globally — and another from several years back found that several U.S. cities ranked as some of the most spied upon in the world. Thankfully, China is still beating us overall — for the time being. But that’s not really saying much, since China is an authoritarian technocracy with little regard for the civil liberties that American are ostensibly owed.
We decided to compile a list of cities where you’re probably being watched by security cameras most of, if not all of, the time. Most of the data comes from a study done last year by tech outlet Comparitech, which compiled data on the number of CCTV cameras per city in the U.S. You can check out their full report for more granular details. Anyway, read on and despair!
San Francisco
It’s the city where you left your heart, supposedly. San Francisco is a wonderful place to visit for many reasons (nice views, cool breeze, and a trendy bar or twenty), but it’s also a pretty terrible place for privacy. Comparitech lists SF as one of its major surveillance hubs, alleging it has a network of some 14,266 municipally operated cameras — or about 16.18 cameras per 1,000 people. Though the city did ban facial recognition in 2019, it may be headed in the opposite direction now, policy-wise. Rising crime rates have pushed officials to invest in a wealth of stupid new programs designed to stop the local tech executive’s Maserati from getting keyed: this includes a recent pilot program that will give cops live access to an extensive network of private security cameras belonging to businesses and residents.
The Bay is also home to Silicon Valley — that great and terrible Gorgon from whence surveillance capitalism and its gruesome spawn (Google, Amazon, Facebook, et al) hath sprung. Hiss!
New York City
It doesn’t make Comparitech’s list, but the Big Apple is clearly another one of the most surveilled American cities, because duh. Before a few weeks ago, New York was already a dystopian mess held together by an army of cops, a broad network of municipal security cameras (at least 15,000, according to reports), and a weirdly unaccountable private surveillance fund. Now, in an effort to curb spiking crime rates, the city has decided to turn its subway system into a giant surveillance apparatus: in September, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration announced it would be installing security cameras in every single train car in the city. She said of the cameras, “You think Big Brother is watching you on the subway? You’re absolutely right. That is our intent.” Nice!
At the same time, the rollout of OMNY, the city’s new all-digital contactless fare system, means that passengers will be ditching their metro cards for a shiny new privacy hazard. The company running that system — a defence contractor called Cubic Transportation Systems — is known for selling surveillance tech and military hardware to foreign governments…so that’s cool.
Atlanta
Atlanta is a big city with a lot of crime, so you can see why officials would want to keep an eye on folks. That said, there is a limit to which doing that actually stops people from doing dumb, illegal things. ATL is said to “lead” America in surveillance and allegedly has as many as 25,000 CCTV cameras stationed throughout the city. Matched against a population of roughly 500,000, that’s about 49 cameras per 1,000 people. Of the cameras in the CCTV network, Comparitech claims that some 12,800 are “available” to the Atlanta Police Department for monitoring, which seems like a lot. All the stats together make Atlanta the most surveilled city in America, according to Comparitech’s 2021 study.
Chicago
We all know Chicago has a major crime problem. For years, the city’s solution to bloodshed has been to stick cameras everywhere. Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union warned that Chi-town’s surveillance network had ballooned to a frightening degree over the course of a decade. “Today, the number of cameras in the [city’s surveillance] system exceeds, by some estimates, more than 30,000,” the ACLU wrote. “Although the number of cameras has expanded, the system continues to operate without any regulation or privacy or regular public reporting about the camera system.” Whether that camera arsenal is actually stopping crime is a matter of conjecture but, suffice it to say, a lot of people are still getting shot in the Windy City every weekend.
Denver
Denver, city of hiking, beautiful people, and high altitudes. Also security cameras! Comparitech found that the Colorado metropolis is one of the most surveilled in the country — with some 12,273 cameras for about 727,211 people, meaning approximately 16.88 cameras per 1,000 people.
Washington, D.C.
D.C. — home of our hallowed government, the place where our legislators spend their days doing…uh, I’m not sure what. It’s also the natural habitat of the FBI and the rest of our surveillance state, which rule over us via a combo of limitless resources, alarmingly sophisticated tech, and a vague constitutional basis.
Comparitech lists our nation’s capital as yet another of the most surveilled places on the planet. No surprise there. If you stroll around D.C., you’ll probably be on camera (the city has about 11,441 cameras, which means about 16 cameras per 1,000 people, given the overall population of 705,749). The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department keep a pretty vigilant watch on everybody from political protesters to homeless people. Additionally, there might be spy planes watching you. All sorts of wonderful possibilities.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles: it’s a place where dreams go to die — or, at the very least, be whittled down via incessant failure until they dissolve into cynicism and despair. Anyway, LA is also a place where, even if you never make it to the silver screen, you’ll still always be on camera! That’s because L.A. is one of the most surveilled places on the planet, according to Comparitech’s study. That includes some 22,327 cameras for about 3,979,576 people, which equals some 5.61 cameras per 1,000 people.