Reports Reveal South Shore's 10312 Most Surveilled Zip Code Within Borough; NYC 5th Most Surveilled City in the Nation

A report from Comparitech released early this year finds New York City ranked fifth among the most surveilled cities in the Nation. Comparitech focuses on consumer-oriented research on cybersecurity and internet privacy in the United States and United Kingdom. Their research identified 70,882 cameras among the 300.38 square miles of New York City, averaging 236 cameras per square mile.

The report by Comparitech builds upon prior research by the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), an advocacy organization and legal services provider. The mission of S.T.O.P. is to litigate and advocate for privacy, working to abolish local governments’ systems of mass surveillance, with particular focus on New York City and State. "It’s unsurprising that New York is among the most surveilled cities in the country, but it’s deeply unnerving all the same," said S.T.O.P. Communications Director Will Owen. "Based on our own previous research at S.T.O.P., surveillance cameras heavily sweep all five boroughs, with one of the most surveilled zip codes on the South Shore of Staten Island."

S.T.O.P. conducted a five-borough surveillance census in 2021, mapping out by zip code all internet-enabled cameras from one surveillance camera manufacturer, Hikvision. While many companies conceal the location of their surveillance equipment, Hikvision allows geolocating by providing a public IP address for cameras. S.T.O.P. identified 16,692 cameras citywide, and 1,411 on Staten Island alone. As of 2021, the 10312 zip code which includes neighborhoods of Eltingville, Woodrow, Annadale and Arden Heights were the most surveilled on the Island with 306 cameras. S.T.O.P. published an interactive map of camera locations, embedded below.

Automated Discrimination

Hikvision cameras, as well as many competitors' prodcuts, can be enabled to conduct facial recognition. Facial recognition technology is error-prone, invasive, and replicates bias in our society by disproportionately impacting Muslim Americans, immigrants, and communities of color. Owen adds, "These cameras do nothing to prevent crime, simply capturing footage for the evening news. When paired with facial recognition, they are a civil rights nightmare, exacerbating the over-policing of [Black, Indigenous, and people of color] BIPOC New Yorkers through digital stop-and-frisk tactics.” S.T.O.P. notes facial recognition software is most inaccurate for darker-skinned BIPOC individuals, particularly Black women. The technology has led to numerous false arrests, and it can be easily weaponized to suppress protests, religious activity, and even access to reproductive healthcare.

The Comparitech report also dispels the assumption that surveillance cameras dissuade crime, finding hardly any correlation between higher camera figures and lower crime index in cities measured. A scatter plot visualizing the correlation is embedded below.