Surveillance Day
Surveillance cameras are all around us, especially in cities. See this first-hand by spending the day looking for them, and giving a wave to any you see.
Engage tech enthusiasts and security professionals with educational content about surveillance technology history and modern camera innovations.
- Spot-the-camera challenge: Share photos of surveillance cameras in your city with #SurveillanceDay
- Tech history deep-dive: How surveillance evolved from 1942 V-2 rocket monitoring to today's AI-powered systems
- Security professional spotlight: Interview installers and engineers about modern surveillance best practices
The first surveillance cameras were created by German engineer Walter Bruch and was installed by Siemens AG in Germany in 1942 to observe the launch of V-2 rockets. In the U.S. the first commercial closed-circuit television system, Vericon, became available in 1949.
The earliest video surveillance systems required constant human monitoring because at the time there was no way to record and store information. Then, when VCR technology became available in the 1970s, it became possible to record and erase information, causing the use of video surveillance to become much more practical and thus much more common.
Olean, New York was the first city in the United States to install video cameras along its main business street in an effort to fight crime in 1968. A few years later, in 1973, cameras also appeared in Times Square in New York City. In the 1980s video surveillance began to spread across the country, especially in public areas. Businesses that were especially prone to theft, such as banks and stores, also began to install surveillance cameras. In 1998, 3,000 CCTV systems were in use in New York City.
Today, surveillance cameras are also used in traffic monitoring, transport safety, control of retail, as well as home and school security. The use of video surveillance in public places became more common after the September 11th Terrorist attacks so as to deter future terrorist attacks. In 2010, there were more than 10,000 CCTV systems and counting in Chicago. Greater London also has a large amount, with the number being estimated around 500,000, and the total number of cameras in the UK to be around 4,200,000.
Surveillance Day was created several years ago to help us all take a step back and having a bit of fun with issues that are usually gravely serious.