Posted on 11/11/2018 10:53:40 AM PST by Jyotishi
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have put an "undisclosed number of covert surveillance cameras inside streetlights" across the country, according to federal procurement documents obtained by Quartz.
It's unclear how many cameras the agencies purchased or where, exactly, the "video recording and reproducing equipment" has been placed. But the documents obtained by Quartz show the DEA paid a company called Cowboy Streetlight Concealments LLC about $22,000 since June 2018, while ICE made payments of $28,000 over the same time period. ICE offices in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio provided funding for the cameras, while the orders by the DEA were paid for out of an Office of Investigative Technology office in Virginia.
Christie Crawford, who co-owns the business with her husband, told Quarz "things are always being watched":
"We do streetlight concealments and camera enclosures," Crawford told Quartz. "Basically, there's businesses out there that will build concealments for the government and that's what we do. They specify what's best for them, and we make it. And that's about all I can probably say."
However, she added: "I can tell you this—things are always being watched. It doesn't matter if you're driving down the street or visiting a friend, if government or law enforcement has a reason to set up surveillance, there's great technology out there to do it."
Other federal documents dug up by Quartz include a more recent DEA solicitation for "concealments made to house network PTZ [Pan-Tilt-Zoom] camera, cellular modem, cellular compression device," though that procurement order cites a different company named Obsidian Integration LLC. Quartz noted that similar concealed cameras are already in use by the agency:
In addition to streetlights, the DEA has also placed covert surveillance cameras inside traffic barrels, a purpose-built product offered by a number of manufacturers.
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
Knowing the typical price for military and militarized police equipment, a price tag in the $20k range should let them stock up on 1 or 2 of them.
I read a while back that all vehicle license plates of vehicles on all the freeways are are being monitored and recorded.
London was way ahead in this business of watching.
Must have been so everyone could watch the muslim takeover of London.
“1984.” On the other hand, “Make America Safe Again”.
Our country has been a surveillance state for a couple of decades now.
Put one at Home Depot to spot illegals at work.
LOL!
Around three years ago, I got a warning from a local cop because my rear license plate was "obscured". Years before, I had added a 2" hitch ball to my SUV's bumper for light towing (a frame hitch seemed overkill). I suspect the cop was trying out some new Optical Character Recognition capability that had been added to his cruiser's computer. Why else would they annoy a driver over something that was a common practice just a few years ago?
Exactly—some “stocking up” at those costs!
I read about a company making these cameras (integrated into streetlights) at least 5 years ago ,, I remember WalMart was going to install them as a test for a few dozen stores.... The lights in the parking areas or course always have AC power available ... The big bonus for this system is that they fed the image data back over the AC power lines and somehow were able to cross transformers and other devices on the way back to the security booth, very simple to install.
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