VPSN Surveillance Map

With the Olympic Games in full swing, we’ve been getting a lot of requests for the map we did of all the surveillance cameras (CCTV) in the Downtown and Downtown Eastside neighbourhoods.

The good news is that this map is available for download from our main VPSN Surveillance & Security webpage. The bad news is that it only documents the 2000 or so cameras that we found before the Olympics. The mapping project recorded this data in the Fall of 2009 – prior to the installation of the Olympic CCTV cameras that now encircle the various athletics venues and Livesites (and streets and gathering places) around town.

That means the map is shy by at least 900-1000 cameras (our best guess, based on reports of government-installed, games-related CCTV, but excluding any other CCTV installed by the private sector, foreign contingents, etc.)

Statements made by local elected officials prior to the Olympics have suggested that Games-related CCTV will be “temporary” – though this term has never been particularly well-defined. With recent Olympics in Greece, China and the US resulting in CCTV “legacies” being left behind in host-cities, we are hopeful that Vancouver will chart a different course… and the cameras will be boxed and returned to Superstore once the 2010 games are over.