BIG Brother is NOT watching you – your neighbours are!

There are now an estimated 16,000 CCTV cameras across Dudley borough – one camera for every 13 people.

But very few are actually operated by the council or police, and far more are controlled by shops, businesses or are on your neighbour’s house.

One of the prime causes of a huge surge in surveillance cameras is the popularity of the simple doorbell camera.

The number of cameras in Dudley is now at a record high, says James Ritchey, who runs the Dudley operations for national firm CCTC.co.uk.

That won’t come as a shock to most people, he says, especially as lockdown anxiety and mail order buying have increased.

“It is driven mainly by residents installing home CCTV in the last year. The popularity of doorbell cameras is relentless.”

The number is rising year on year as the cost of technology comes down and the popularity of sub £200 surveillance camera systems and doorbell cameras increases.

There is no exact number for cameras in the area as they do not need to be officially registered – anyone can install CCTV to protect their property.

But CCTV.co.uk thinks that as many as 1 camera per 13 Dudley residents is where the number lies based on historical data and the upsurge in camera use in 2020.

Generally, there are 4 types of CCTV camera systems used in Dudley:

1. Local Authority/Council/Police CCTV camera monitoring systems

2. Corporate and business CCTV Systems

3. Home CCTV Systems

4. Non-installed Doorbell and wireless cameras

Based on national averages almost 96% of the total number of cameras in Dudley are owned by private businesses and homeowners – not the Government.

Dudley Council says it has 80 state of the art cameras and another 20 coming soon.

Dudley ranks 31st out of 61 cities and boroughs in the UK for the number of CCTV cameras, according to the company’s estimates.

Data available at https://www.cctv.co.uk/dudley/