Following the Islamist bombings that shook the south-central Indian city of Hyderabad in 2013, officials scrambled to install 5,000 CCTV cameras to enhance security. Today, in 2022, there are almost 700,000 of these cameras in the city and its vicinity. To gain an inkling of Hyderabad’s surveillance apparatus, one only need look at the Command and Control Center in the posh Banjara Hills neighborhood. This 20- story tower is a newer substitute for a campus where a multitude of officers already had access to 24-hour, real-time CCTV and cellphone tower data that geolocates reported crimes. Such technology activates any available camera in the surroundings, reveals a photographic database of criminals, and can pair images with facial recognition software to scrutinize CCTV footage for known criminals in the area.
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