The Hong Kong government plans to install 2,000 surveillance cameras in public spaces across the city in a bid to reduce crime. Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk says the cameras will be set up in densely populated areas, as well as those considered “high risk” by authorities.
In an interview with RTHK, Cheuk said, “The surveillance cameras will be installed in places with a high flow of people and places evaluated as high risk by officers. But the cameras may not put there permanently. If needed, they may be moved to other places too,” adding that 600 such cameras will be installed by mid-2024, and the remaining by the end of this year.
As of 2020, there were no official figures for the number of public CCTVs in Hong Kong, according to John Lee, who was the Secretary for Security at the time. Lee, who is now Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, said that it was “not appropriate to disclose such information” as this would allow criminals to understand the security systems of government departments.
Agencies such as the police and the MTR, as well as government departments dedicated to housing, immigration, hospitals, food and environmental hygiene, and cultural and recreational spaces have surveillance cameras to track activity in public areas.
Hong Kong was the eighth-safest city in the world in 2021, according to the Safe Cities Index complied by The Economist Intelligence Unit, which evaluated 60 cities across the world for personal, infrastructure, health, digital, and environmental security. However, while the SAR was among the Top 10 for overall safety, it placed at No. 21 in terms of personal security — dropping three spots from its previous position of No. 3.
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