[ideophobia]

A lot of statements and theories about these camera's from all sorts of directions, but they're just pole cams. LEA's have been using pole cams since before I was born (I'm 34). I worked in law enforcement as an analyst and spent some time staring at pole cams that were setup to surveil known drug dealers or criminal gang members. To do one correctly (i.e. legally) you typically need a warrant or a court order, but it can vary I guess based on jurisdiction. They're often deployed as an alternative to human surveillance efforts. They're called pole cams because, well, they get thrown up on telephone poles usually, to take advantage of the power source and ease of view. The surprising part of this isn't the cameras, its the fact that these are wide open on the internet. But honestly police are not IT people, and they often have officers or agents that work specifically as "surveillance techs" who are not IT people either.

I imagine this will draw a ton of ire about privacy and such, and I generally agree, but from my limited experience with them, they aren't wide spread, they're typically temporary, and they're usually purged except for the parts that are relevant to the investigation. These cams appear to be the exception, not the norm. If I saw a cam was sitting on an openly accessible server like this I would have filed a complaint with the agency and the OAG. I don't live in a state where any of the ones listed on Reddit are in, but I would encourage people who do live in a state with one of these cams to notify your OAG about it.

[bsder]

The point is the bloody things are unsecured.

It's one thing for LAPD to throw up a camera that looks in your windows with a warrant (not convinced they have one, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt).

It's another thing for LAPD to throw up a camera that looks in your windows AND LEAVE IT UNSECURED ON THE INTERNET.

[bredren]

Mistakes in areas generally off limits to regular folks seem more outrageous because LEOs are trusted with powers of surveillance and lethal enforcement of the law.

But LEOs are people and people make mistakes. It happens and when it does it can be scary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WgxUoky4kg

It is an understatement to describe LE as not IT people. In general LE struggles greatly with technology and the ability to recruit technology people.

[ideophobia]

Totally agree, which is why I recommended people contact their local Attorney's General if they live in a state or city where one of these are located.

[leephillips]

If they are, or can be steered to, look in a window, that’s one thing. But if they can only see the public street, then they should be unsecured, for the convenience of the public. I can use them to check traffic, or see if the bus is coming.

[a3n]

Or see if you're being surveiled.

[bsder]

A lot of these can be steered.

[leephillips]

Even more convenient. And when the law enforcement purpose needs them to be fixed on a certain spot, then turn off public access until the investigation is over.

[sterlind]

And by polling them to see when public access is disabled, you know exactly when and where stakeouts are happening!

[nexuist]

Could you offer this as a SaaS? Any good literature on how to develop pricing models aimed at criminals?

[znpy]

One might wonder how comes that US has so much drugs flowing with all this cameras around and massive surveillance.

One might think that drugs are only an excuse.