Two of the central goals of the democratic state are to provide its citizens with security and protect their civil liberties. In normal times, when things are proceeding in a predictable manner, people generally defend their freedoms and are suspicious of large-scale surveillance technologies. While there are several studies on how in the aftermath of terrorist attacks people tend to favor stronger security policies, more research is needed on how people who live in high-crime neighborhoods think about these issues. Therefore, in this paper, we examine what residents in such neighborhoods think about using surveillance technologies like cameras and key tags. We use questions with both open-ended and closed-ended response options to better understand their attitudes. We have conducted five surveys in Malmö’s vulnerable neighborhoods (n = 2100). The residents are often described as hard to survey as many have foreign background and lower socio-economic status, but we overcome these obstacles by working closely with local housing agencies, fielding our surveys in multiple languages and conducting face-to-face interviews. We compare these results with data from a representative Swedish sample (n = 1000). In line with our expectation, we find that residents in vulnerable neighborhoods are very much in favor of policies that enhance their security.