Needless to say, China’s use of video surveillance cameras for a variety of purposes is known worldwide. However, the U.S. is seeing an increased installed base of video surveillance cameras as well in recent years.
Needless to say, China’s use of video surveillance
cameras for a variety of purposes is known worldwide, and the resulting privacy and civil liberty concerns have drawn criticisms from various countries, including the United States. However, the U.S. is seeing an increased installed base of video surveillance cameras as well in recent years.
According to a
recent report by IHS Markit | Technology with regard to video surveillance camera penetration by region, China in 2018 led the world with 1 camera for each 4.1 persons. The United States came in second, with a penetration rate of 1 camera for every 4.6 citizens.
More specifically, China's installed base of surveillance cameras surged from 210 million in 2015 to 349 million in 2018, by nearly 70 percent, while the US installed base increased from 47 million in 2015 to 70 million cameras in 2018, IHS said.
The report further forecasted by 2021, China's installed base is expected to rise to 567 million cameras, while the U.S. base will swell to 85 million.
Security and non-security applications
The report found China’s video camera installed base in
city surveillance applications was about 4.5 times larger than in the United States. Indeed, China is known for using video surveillance cameras in various smart city and safe city initiatives. In cities like Chongqing and Shanghai, it is common to see drivers getting a push notification on their smart phones or receiving a fine for illegal parking, thanks to cameras supported with license plate recognition technologies either onboard or at the backend. Cameras combined with facial recognition technologies also see increased deployments in Chinese cities, where blacklisted or suspicious individuals can be identified and dealt with instantly by municipal operators.
Yet in the U.S., cities like Atlanta, Chicago, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego and Boston are also known to have large installed bases for cameras. An Atlantic police sergeant
was cited by Citylab as saying: “Access to these cameras multiplies the number of eyes we have on the street looking for criminal activity and assisting with situational awareness during large events and gatherings. They allow us to identify criminal activity as it is occurring, prevent and deter criminal activity, and capture video evidence when a crime does occur to aid in criminal investigations and prosecutions.”
Then, the public perception and attitudes towards video surveillance and facial recognition in the U.S. have changed, too. A new Pew Research Center survey finds that a majority of Americans, at 56 percent, trust law enforcement agencies to use video surveillance technologies responsibly. A similar share of the public, at 59 percent, says it is acceptable for law enforcement to use facial recognition tools to assess security threats in public spaces, the survey shows.
Meanwhile, according to the IHS report, the
retail and commercial end-user markets are estimated to have the largest numbers of cameras installed in United States. This is understandable. With retail becoming increasingly competitive, especially after the entry of online retailers, physical stores must rely on technologies to find customer patterns and preferences to improve sales and deliver a better user experience. In this regard, video cameras backed with analytics can help identify the customer’s age and gender profile as well as which areas are frequented most.
Indeed, with more and more users realizing the benefits of video surveillance in security and non-security applications, both China and U.S. installing more cameras will become a trend that’s unlikely to be stopped by concerns and criticisms from advocacy groups.