We don't have the resources to keep track of it," privacy commissioner Marie Shroff says.

"It's developing in a way I'm sure a lot of people will be alarmed about."

Proponents say the cameras are there to catch criminals and to help keep us safe – but are we sacrificing our right to privacy?

New Zealand Civil Liberties chairperson Michael Bott said there were "strong and compelling" arguments for having surveillance cameras in some high crime areas and at busy road junctions but that had to be balanced against people's right to freely go about their business.

"The biggest risk is that people become desensitised to having the state monitoring their every movement, but it is also about what the state does with that information, particularly as data sharing becomes more prevalent." Examples of misuse would be celebrities being caught on camera in affairs or other compromising situations, which were then leaked to the media, he said.

Last year Wellington City Council tested two surveillance cameras in the Manners Mall-Cuba St area but they have now been removed. Civic Square has been monitored since it was built.

Wellington City Council also has about 20 traffic cameras around the central city on main traffic routes.

Council safer city coordinator Laurie Gabites said after the successful CCTV pilot, further funding for permanent cameras was being sought in the next council budget.

The real success of the cameras was using them as part of a wider range of tools to make the city safer, for example alongside city safety officers, better street lighting and liquor controls, he said.

Wellington district crime manager Detective Inspector Harry Quinn said most surveillance in Wellington was by privately owned cameras outside bars, cash machines, clubs and petrol stations.

"I reckon if you walked from Taranaki St along Courtenay Place you would probably be on someone's system for most of that walk."

"If employers are going to try to see who is pilfering from work and use surveillance cameras, they have to announce the fact to the employees."

In Christchurch, police and volunteers monitor at least 26 cameras in central Christchurch streets and the central bus station with closed-circuit television.

"We have basically got most of the Christchurch central business district covered," Senior Sergeant Colin Campbell says.

Campbell recalls a recent case in which a man was caught on camera stabbing a person with a pair of scissors. The man was imprisoned for 21 months using the footage as evidence.

Murray Hills, manager of video surveillance firm Prime Digital, says about 30 per cent of retailers have video surveillance to prevent customer and employee theft.

Canterbury Council of Civil Liberties convener Graeme Dunstall says cameras in the retail workplace also present a threat to people's right to privacy.

"If employers are going to try to see who is pilfering from work and use surveillance cameras, they have to announce the fact to the employees. The issue goes beyond just trying to catch someone ripping them off.

It goes into monitoring working practices that may be totally innocent."

But if you think surveillance is widespread here, compare it with Britain, where there are more than four million surveillance cameras monitoring people – making it the most monitored society in the world.

So what does the future hold here?

Murray Hills says surveillance cameras are rapidly becoming more affordable and are already in the range of the private consumer.

"The time has come, but people have just not realised. It does become feasible to have a camera in your home. But it begs the question, why have one in your house? It may catch a burglary, for argument's sake, but it's not going to stop the threat."

Last year, the New Zealand Customs Service tested computer-linked cameras to help identify terrorists and undesirable passengers.

Customs says it is a question of when, rather than if, the system will be installed at New Zealand's main airports.

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