A pedestrian walking along London Circuit from the Legislative Assembly to the police station will pass eight ACT government-owned cameras, run by the Justice and Community Safety Directorate but operated by ACT Policing.

There are also three banks with their own security cameras, three ATMs that record passers-by and four retail stores with visible electronic surveillance.

Two well-known nightspots along that stretch of road also have their own cameras and there are 2000 cameras on Action buses that travel along the route, not to mention taxis that also record passengers. Images from the government-owned cameras are recorded 24 hours a day and kept for 30 days.

The cameras can pan, tilt and zoom to get a better look at people of interest and are either manually operated or operate on presets to cover all key locations.

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights the cameras are monitored in real time but their range and zooming capability was not released to the Sunday Canberra Times. There are also up to an additional 20 cameras operated by other ACT government departments. The Territory and Municipal Services Directorate has cameras at the Civic MyWay centre at 112 Alinga Street, in the Civic Driver Licence Service located in the Civic Library and cameras at the library.

Commonwealth agencies the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations on Marcus Clarke Street, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry on London Circuit and the Department of Infrastructure and Transport on Alinga Street all have their own cameras. So while a map provided by the ACT government showed 39 cameras in Civic, the real number would be substantially higher.

Walking along that stretch of London Circuit it is quite possible Canberrans are never off screen. And a Coalition government would spend $50 million over four years installing more CCTV cameras if it wins office.