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Comment by 1cvmask | Hacker News Reader

The article suggests that there will be roughly 8000 cameras in Belgrade including body cams etc.

“ The latest information gathered from the second DPIA of the Ministry suggests that there will be more than 8000 different cameras and other devices in use, such as body cams, mobile cameras and vehicle-mounted cameras.”

Quite a low figure compared to the over 600 thousand CCTV cameras in London:

“ If there was one camera for every 14 people in London, that would put the number of CCTV cameras in use in the capital as 627,707.”

https://www.cctv.co.uk/how-many-cctv-cameras-are-there-in-lo...

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The vast, vast majority of the 600k (methodology is questionable) cameras in London are private indoor CCTV cameras that don't monitor public areas.

TFA appears to be about government-operated cameras in public areas.

Comparing those two figures is apples to oranges.

That's not to say London doesn't have significant government operated camera installations. Most are road cameras used to optimise traffic light patterns, but there is also the "Ring of Steel" in the City of London which, at ~650, is probably the largest integrated surveillance camera installation in London.

Yes quite low compared to London but London has been actively adding cameras for 20 years. And Serbia doesnt have the checks and balances at the government level to control the usage and rollouts. As the article states, there isnt even any laws in place that determine how the footage can be used. Pair that with the fact that the current regime has a stranglehold on the country controlling the narrative at every corner, and you can see why there is such a great concern. I have friends who recently moved from Serbia and they say the overall situation has been getting progressively worse in the last 5-10 years. People are generally more frustrated and tense in everyday life.

Pales even next to NYC which is aiming to have 2000+ cameras just for generating traffic ticket revenue and these are just part of the NYPD Domain Awareness System[0]. The wikipedia article does a good job of defining the scale of it.

People just don't get it. The observation has been here for years if not decades, its only because similar technology is available to the general public that we are now just beginning to understand how little privacy we have and how much government is watching and recording.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Awareness_System

Pales even next to NYC which is aiming to have 2000+ cameras just for generating traffic ticket revenue

About ten years ago, the Chicago Police Department was bragging about having 30,000 cameras on the streets. God knows how many there are now.

> And Serbia doesnt have the checks and balances at the government level to control the usage and rollouts.

Does have UK, or US?

Yes, although it's arguable how effective they are.

We have RIPA and the Data Protection Act, and we have the surveillance camera commissioner.

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/surveillance-cam...

See eg the latest report: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

I think issue is not the number of cameras so much as that number will increase but the Chinese system that uses AI to track people. https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/13/china-cctv-bbc-reporter/

Issue in Belgrade is that the current government is quite corrupted and World media are covering very little about demonstrations regarding recent rigged elections. Basically, current government is in this way looking a way to suppress opposition even further. If I would compare it is very similar situation like in Belarus, and this is high tech upgrade to give dictatorship additional power.

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