Barcelona's plan to triple the number of CCTV cameras starts in Plaça Catalunya and the seafront.

BarcelonaIt has been 24 years since Barcelona installed its first public safety camera in Plaça George Orwell in Ciutat Vella. Since then, another 159 have been installed. A number that the Jaume Collboni administration has long considered insufficient and which it will now triple. Up to 500 more devices will be installed in public spaces over the next two years to extend video surveillance to all districts. Of this new batch, the first 14 have already been authorized and will begin to be installed in the coming weeks in Plaça Catalunya so that they can be operational in the first quarter of 2026. Until now, the city's 160 cameras were installed in various locations in Sants-Montjuïc, especially in the Eixample district. In fact, these two districts will account for the first phase of this expansion of surveillance devices, which will take place between the end of this year and 2026. During this period, 134 new cameras will be installed. Of these, 104 will be placed in new locations where no devices previously existed, and the remaining 30 are upgrades that will offer new viewing angles that were previously unavailable. In addition to the 14 in Plaça Catalunya, the most advanced projects are the 13 requested for the Barceloneta seafront, between Plaça del Mar and Carrer Marina. The remaining locations are not yet public because they are pending final authorization from the Catalan Surveillance Device Control Commission. This body – chaired by the president of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), Mercè Caso – must issue a mandatory and binding report in each case endorsing the installation of the devices, ensuring compatibility between two fundamental rights of citizens: the right to security and the right to one's own image. The Commission's endorsement and the subsequent authorization from the Catalan Interior Ministry are the final step in a process that begins almost a year earlier, when the police – often in collaboration with residents and business owners – identify the need for video surveillance in a particular area. But how is it decided where to place a camera and where not to? To decide where to request installation, the City Council conducts a study that analyzes three main parameters: areas with a high concentration of criminal activity; Spaces with intensive use or conflicts of coexistence—for example, areas where cultural activities or demonstrations are common—and the study of vulnerable spaces identified by the Secur'cities project, which identifies areas where terrorist attacks with multiple victims may occur.

The new cameras, which will have improved definition and field of view, will not have any facial recognition or AI-based identification technology. However, they will be able to move or zoom if an agent in the control room deems it necessary. The cameras are equipped with software that masks the images at angles where they might record private views—such as windows. Hospitals, playgrounds, and beaches cannot be recorded. Furthermore, the images they record must be deleted within three months, unless they have recorded a criminal act under investigation.

Target: more than a thousand cameras

The remaining phases of deploying these 500 new cameras will be carried out later. The City Council anticipates that phases 2 and 3—with the installation of 121 new devices—will be completed during 2026 and the first quarter of 2027, and that phase 4, the most ambitious, with up to 245 new cameras, will be completed during the rest of 2027. This will bring the city's total to 660 cameras, capturing images of 5.16% of the city's public space. But the municipal government's goal is to go even further: Mayor Jaume Collboni recently announced plans to install another 500 cameras during the next term, thus exceeding 1,000 devices.

In a working session with journalists, the Security and Prevention Manager, Maite Català, emphasized that the entire process is carried out with "many safeguards," and defended the dual purpose of the cameras: on the one hand, because they serve as a deterrent to criminals, who know they can get away with it; and, on the other hand, because, should a crime still be committed, they can protect victims since the recorded images can serve as evidence in court. All of this, Català said, should help "turn around the public's perception of insecurity."