“It was easy to increase the safety and protection of our community. The cooperation we received from DTNYXE and participating businesses was outstanding.”
Virgil Reed, CEO, Reed Security
"Reed Security was great to work with, the project was delivered on time and on budget and we are pleased with the overall result. They were sensitive to the needs of property owners to ensure the installation was sensitive to building facades."
Brent Penner, Executive Director, DTNYXE
DO SECURITY CAMERAS DETER CRIMINAL ACTIVITY?
Case studies have proven that having a video surveillance system can deter a significant amount of crime. The University of North Carolina found that half of all the surveyed burglars would flee the area after discovering cameras. Additionally, 60% of burglars said they wouldn’t rob an establishment if they had prior knowledge of the video surveillance system.
EXAMPLES OF SMART CITY VIDEO SURVEILLACE
Hayward, California*
After investing in improving its downtown area, city officials in Hayward, California, realized that the area around city hall needed further security measures to stop the drug dealing, prostitution, theft and violent crimes going on there. Purchasing solar-powered, deployable video surveillance units saved the city a significant amount of money since power lines would have had to have been trenched in. Even better, the drug dealing came to a rapid halt thanks to camera identification and other crime went down an estimated 60 percent as well.
Mankato, Minnesota*
The city of Mankato, Minnesota, has complied with its new public safety and property protection initiatives and helped reduce the number of public safety crimes, as well as vandalism incidents. A recent nationally-publicized altercation that took place outside a bar was captured on the city’s surveillance cameras, giving law enforcement evidence that aided in the judicial process.
*Source: https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/90109-the-impact-of-surveillance-smart-cities
You could say that the common factor between every smart city project in the world is in their ultimate goal: to improve quality of life, or livability, for their citizens, and Saskatoon is no different.
Atlanta, Georgia
In addition to city departments, the networks of local private businesses can also be integrated. This results in a public-private partnership that ensures the highest level of protection for a city and its citizens. There are already some very successful use cases proving the importance of collaboration between the public and private sector, for example, the initiative “Operation Shield” ran in the City of Atlanta.
“Operation Shield is a two-way street. The police department gets eyes in a particular area they might not have had before, and at the same time, it gives businesses peace of mind that APD can see what’s going on and respond faster should the need arise.” - Thomas Sutton, Senior Police Officer of the Atlanta, Georgia Police Department
10 CITIES WITH THE MOST VIDEO SURVEILLANCE
#1- Cameras per person
Based on the number of cameras per 1,000 people, these cities are the top 10 most surveilled in the world:
1. Taiyuan, China – 465,255 cameras for 3,975,985 people = 117.02 cameras per 1,000 people
2. Wuxi, China – 300,000 cameras for 3,315,113 people = 90.49 cameras per 1,000 people
3. London, England (UK) – 691,000 cameras for 9,425,622 people = 73.31 cameras per 1,000 people
4. Indore, India – 200,600 cameras per 3,113,445 people = 64.43 cameras per 1,000 people
5. Changsha, China – 262,000 cameras for 4,694,722 people = 55.81 cameras per 1,000 people
6. Beijing, China – 1,150,000 cameras for 20,896,820 people = 55.03 cameras per 1,000 people
7. Hangzhou, China – 400,000 cameras for 7,845,501 people = 50.98 cameras per 1,000 people
8. Qingdao, China – 262,000 cameras for 5,742,486 people = 45.62 cameras per 1,000 people
9. Kunming, China – 200,000 cameras for 4,550,831 people = 43.95 cameras per 1,000 people
10. Xiamen, China – 150,000 cameras for 3,790,792 people = 39.57 cameras per 1,000 people
#2- Cameras per square mile
Based on the number of cameras per square mile, these cities are the top 20 most surveilled in the world:
