The spatial relationship between police-monitored surveillance cameras and urban environment in Haining, China

While surveillance cameras have proliferated worldwide, little is known about their spatial pattern at the citywide scale and the underlying logic behind their placement. Taking the opportunity from a national project, this research aims to fill the knowledge gap by studying Haining City in China. The spatial effects of environmental factors on cameras are disentangled with spatial econometric models. The main findings are: 1) Surveillance cameras concentrate in urban centers and commercial areas, with their density decreasing outwards. 2) Robbery, rape, and pornography-related crime show the largest impact among all environmental factors. 3) Robbery only has a spatial spillover effect, while theft, injury, and gambling-related crime show only a small but significant local effect. Rape, pornography-, and drug-related crime have both significant but divergent local and spillover effects. 4) Among the five types of activity places, key sites and recreation/entertainment places have only a small but significant local effect, while specialized industry places show only a small but significant spillover effect. 5) The resident population does not have any significant effect. These findings provide direct scientific evidence for developing guidelines on the spatial placement of surveillance cameras at the city scale.