More than 600 security cameras keep an eye on the shops and streets of central Dunedin. That is more cameras than there are retailers in the George St shopping area.
A visual survey by The Star this week of about 250 premises found 602 security cameras installed on the walls and ceilings of buildings in the central business area.
The survey was limited to those cameras that could be easily spotted, so it is likely there are many more.
Supermarkets, banks, electronic goods shops and department stores had the most cameras of all business types and some had many more than others.
One central city supermarket had at least 50 cameras while another had 39.
Our reporters saw more than 50 cameras in the non-shop public areas of the central city malls.
At the other end of the size scale, a small George St cut-price goods retailer had at least seven camera domes in plain view - half as many cameras as the council has trained on the much bigger Octagon.
Verandas between the Exchange and Frederick St had about 40 cameras.
Most were trained on banks while the lion's share of the rest watched inner-city bars and public thoroughfares.
There were also six cameras in the Library Plaza and one facing the Octagon. These, with 14 in the Octagon, were Dunedin City Council-owned.
These areas were marked as having security cameras, but many shops were not.
A spokeswoman for the Privacy Commissioner yesterday said the Privacy Act required businesses that collected personal information to let people know that it was collecting that information.
The Act did not say businesses needed to have warning signs, but that was the easiest and clearest way to make sure people were informed.
The commissioner's guidelines say signs warning that security cameras are in use have to be installed near the cameras and at the perimeter of the camera's operating area.
The guidelines also say the footage the cameras capture can only be used for the purposes it was collected, and can only be kept for as long as necessary to do so.
DCC communications officer Hannah Molloy said the council's cameras - which were in clearly signposted areas - were used to clamp down on nuisance behaviour and disorder.
Footage had been used to prosecute vandals, taggers and those involved in minor assaults.
Night `n Day convenience stores chief executive Tony Allison confirmed his company had cameras in all three of its Dunedin stores. They were a great deterrent - and the company did not hide them.
It was company policy to post at the front of the stores the images of known shoplifters captured on store cameras, Mr Allison said.
Meridian Mall manager Michael Porter confirmed the mall's common areas were watched by 32 security cameras. Most stores had their own systems.
They were used to track "perpetrators" as they moved through the mall and had been used to help the police, he said.
Where are the cameras?
There were 602 security cameras spotted by Star reporters in the central city area. All reporters were sure there would have been many more they did not see.
40 cameras wer4e spotted in stores on Great King St between Moray Pl and Frederick St and in Albion Lane
13 were seen on the outside of stores in the same area
39 cameras were spotted in Countdown
50 in Centre City New World
94 camera were seen in businesses around the Octagon, Civic Centre and both sides of Princes St up, but not including, the Exchange
25 were seen on the street and on verandas in the same area
127 cameras were found in shops in Farmers and in the Wall Street, Golden Centre, Centre City and Meridian malls
25 were found in mall thoroughfares and common areas
96 cameras were found inside stores and businesses from the Octagon to Frederick St
93 cameras were sighted inside and outside stores on the west side of George St
- By Jonathan Chilton-Towle
