Journalism of Courage
Terming it as a “feather in the cap”, the Delhi government claimed Thursday the city has the maximum number of CCTVs per square mile with “highly secure” feeds.
“I feel proud to say that Delhi beat cities like Shanghai, New York and London with the most CCTV cameras per square mile across the world. At first, Delhi has 1,826 cameras, while at second, London has 1,138 cameras per square mile. My compliments to the Delhi government’s officers and engineers who worked on the project like a mission and achieved the feat in such a short time,” CM Arvind Kejriwal tweeted.
The government has so far installed 2.75 lakh CCTVs across 67 out of 70 constituencies in Delhi. A survey is currently underway to identify spots to install 1.38 lakh more CCTVs.
Kejriwal’s tweet drew criticism from Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), a digital rights advocacy group which had in 2019 served a legal notice to Kejriwal citing the absence of a legal framework governing the footage recorded through these cameras and demanded that their installation be halted.
“CCTV deployment is without any legal basis or safeguards. As per a non-legal SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) footage from CCTVs is shared with RWAs and Market Associations. This is encouraging private, warrantless surveillance across Delhi,” the IFF tweeted.
In its statement, the government sought to address the concerns on privacy: “All CCTV feeds are highly secure, with hardware monitored by the community, feeds accessible only to authorised users, and system itself capable of automatic health checkups to detect disturbances and intrusions of the connections. The government ensures the security and privacy of all feeds collected”.
A draft SOP drawn up by a panel formed by the L- G had touched upon the privacy aspect and potential misuse of footage.
