The Cambridge Panopticon: 18th September 2023 - West Side Story

The new build is located on the outskirts of Cambourne, to the west of Cambridge, itself a new settlement. The last time I was there, the houses were still having their foundations laid, and there certainly weren't all those Hikvision cameras.
Why is Hikvision kit being used, given all the security concerns associated with that company?
If the congestion charge really is dead in the water, why are all the cameras still going up around Cambridge? Why were they going up even before the so called consultation was still running? It is a lot of money to spend on the off chance that people will support your plans. Money that could have been spent on making the road surfaces safe and effective, to borrow a phrase...
Oh good. Got to have that 'New integrated appearance....'
"New integrated appearance
Heat mapping, Queue Management, People Counting
4 built-in microphones provide better audio"
https://www.hikvision.com/uk/

There appear to be a ridiculous number of products, although some of them are unavailable:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=hikvision&page=12&ref=sr_pg_11

"IT IS A Chinese state-owned company that is implicated in disturbing human rights violations. But that has not stopped Hikvision from gaining a major foothold in the United Kingdom. Through a network of corporate partners, the Hangzhou-based security firm has supplied its surveillance cameras for use on the British parliamentary estate, as well as to police, hospitals, schools, and universities throughout the country, according to sources and procurement records.
Hikvision, whose technology the U.S. government recently banned federal agencies from purchasing, is generating millions of dollars in annual revenue selling its technology to British companies and organizations. At the same time, it has been helping to establish an oppressive surveillance state in the Xinjiang region of China, where the Uighur ethnic minorities have been held in secret internment camps.
https://theintercept.com/2019/04/09/hikvision-cameras-uk-parliament/

"Mon 21 Sep 2020
Surveillance cameras made by Hikvision, the Chinese company that has been implicated in grave human rights violations and has been blacklisted by the US government, are being used across the UK, from leisure centres in London to school toilets in west Norfolk."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/21/chinese-spy-tech-firm-linked-uighur-abuses-increases-uk-presence

That famous Benjamin Franklin quote:
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”
https://www.hoover.org/research/what-benjamin-franklin-really-said

And ironically...
https://www.npr.org/2015/03/02/390245038/ben-franklins-famous-liberty-safety-quote-lost-its-context-in-21st-century