Since 2016, government agencies, companies and individuals have been able to report to the police how many security cameras they have and where they are located. Since then, a total of 228,530 cameras have been registered in the Netherlands. There are about 6 registered cameras per square kilometer in the Netherlands. The retention time of camera images is 23 days on average.
Of all those registered cameras, 80.8% are owned by businesses. Public cameras, from the municipality, for example, comprise 7.5% of all cameras. Private individuals registered 11.7% of the total number of security cameras in the Netherlands.
Amsterdam has the most cameras: 21,816. Per square kilometer, that amounts to about 100 cameras. For every 10,000 residents the city has, there are 253 cameras.
Rotterdam companies, individuals and governments also widely observed public spaces with 13,771 cameras. A total of about 5,000 cameras were registered in The Hague and Utrecht. Per square kilometer, 8 more cameras were registered in The Hague than in Rotterdam (50 to 42). In Utrecht, 45 cameras per square kilometer capture images.
Within the Netherlands, large differences can be seen per municipality. In order to make a good comparison of the number of cameras per municipality, we looked at the number of cameras per 10,000 inhabitants. In this case, the municipality of Vlieland registered the most cameras: 677 per 10,000 inhabitants. Zandvoort, Haarlemmermeer and Nijkerk, with over 400 cameras per 10,000 inhabitants, also have relatively many registered cameras compared to the number of inhabitants.
By far the fewest cameras per inhabitant are in the Groningen municipality of Loppersum: 7 per 10,000 inhabitants. Drechterland and Kapelle, two other municipalities with few cameras, have 22 and 28 cameras per 10,000 inhabitants, respectively.
By no means all municipalities have public security cameras registered with the police. In fact, of all municipalities, 31.5% have no public cameras registered with the police database, while it is unlikely that all of these municipalities do not actually operate cameras. Thus, the actual number of government cameras is probably higher than can be determined purely on the basis of the available data.
Incidentally, the municipality of Haarlemmermeer has the most government cameras, a whopping 4,683. This is probably largely due to Schiphol Airport, which is located in the municipality.
Haarlemmermeer, 4683*
Rotterdam, 1807
Amsterdam, 1083
The Hague, 877
Utrecht, 520
*Schiphol Airport is located in this municipality
Clear differences can also be seen at the provincial level. For example, North Brabant and Gelderland have the most cameras per 10,000 inhabitants. The capitals of these two provinces also capture the most images relative to other provincial capitals.
In contrast, per square kilometer, the amount of security cameras in South Holland and Utrecht stands out. Relative to both population and area, there are few registered cameras in Zeeland.
These figures map how many cameras are registered with the police. The actual number of cameras located in public areas may be higher.
As part of the "Camera in Focus" project, the police are asking businesses and individuals to register their cameras. That way, in the event of a crime, the police can quickly locate cameras and check whether any images have been captured that the police can link to a crime or event.
On average, 5.8 cameras are transmitted per registration. Private individuals completing a registration form have an average of 2 cameras. It is also worth noting that 87.6% of all registered cameras are aimed at public roads. Of 0.6%, the police do not know if this is the case. The remaining 11.7% of registered cameras are only pointed at private property.
The vast majority of notified cameras are cameras that are not managed by a government agency; 211,308 of the 228,530 cameras belong to companies or private individuals. Of these, 86.6% are aimed at public roads, whereby today quite strict regulations, laid down in the AVG, must be met. For example, there must be a legitimate interest in filming the public road, it must be adequately indicated that filming is taking place, and a legal retention period applies. The Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens must supervise, but the question is whether this is done adequately, especially with individuals.
