Hong Kong intends to expand its citywide CCTV network to roughly 60,000 cameras by 2028, a steep increase from the nearly 4,000 operating today under the police SmartView program. Legislative materials outlining the plan describe a three-year build-out of about 56,000 new units, with installations prioritized in high-traffic and high-crime areas.
Police officials told lawmakers the expansion will rely on AI-based analytics already used for license-plate reading and crowd monitoring, and that the same systems could “naturally” extend to tracking suspects once networked infrastructure is in place.
The initiative marks one of the region’s largest surveillance upgrades since the implementation of the National Security Law, mirroring the scale of deployments seen across mainland cities.
Authorities have confirmed that the upgraded cameras will be capable of facial recognition and other computer-vision tasks, though operational use remains subject to Hong Kong’s Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance. Current guidance from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data requires a privacy impact assessment before any biometric analysis is applied, emphasizing necessity and proportionality in data collection. The SmartView documentation also outlines requirements for signage and retention periods, signaling an attempt to balance law-enforcement utility with privacy safeguards.
The plan builds on earlier steps toward AI-enhanced surveillance, including a previously announced effort to activate facial recognition in 3,000-plus CCTV cameras by the end of 2025. With the new targets, that pilot-scale deployment becomes a citywide framework, expected to connect to back-end systems capable of real-time image analysis and person-matching once upgrades are complete. Legislative summaries suggest roughly 20,000 new cameras will come online each year through 2028, supported by cloud analytics for video search and threat detection.
Hong Kong’s surveillance expansion reflects a broader global shift toward AI-enabled video systems in public infrastructure. Similar patterns have appeared in recent municipal programs examined in our primer on AI CCTV deployments, which compares international approaches to oversight and facial recognition use. While other jurisdictions such as New Orleans have paused or scaled back such capabilities, Hong Kong’s rollout positions it among the most heavily instrumented cities in Asia.
The development also parallels policy discussions about distinguishing between facial recognition and broader video analytics functions as AI models are integrated into surveillance networks.
Sources: Table.Media, France 24, Courthouse News, The Standard, PCPD
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By Cass Kennedy
