Another creepy unsecured government surveillance camera has been identified as being on this telephone pole at the corner of Race Street and Washington, Avenue in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Ironically, this appears to be in the middle of a black neighborhood, which would mean that the government is using hidden surveillance cameras to spy on unsuspecting black people on Race Street.
The camera was located because like most unsecured cameras, anyone that knows the URL (http://166.254.217.55/viewer/live/index.html?lang=en) can load it in their web browser and control the camera. This control comes with a few ways to adjust the zoom, angle, and rotation. Sometimes these cameras also have presets that zero in on a specific spot. That was the case yesterday when we posted about an identical camera in Delaware (https://copblaster.com/blast/20616/possible-police-surveillance-milford-liberty-gas-station). In that case the camera had a preset that focused on the front door of the gas station across the street. In this case, the camera has three presets:
1) "zoom of sidewalk" - Should be renamed "zoom of tree"
2) "Home" - Focuses at the house located at 1310 Race Street
3) "test" - does not appear focused on anything.
Clearly whoever setup this camera had a specific home in mind when they set it up or decided on a specific home knowing a camera was already within range. The media has recently reported that the DEA and ICE have been hiding cameras "in street lights" (ex: https://qz.com/1458475/the-dea-and-ice-are-hiding-surveillance-cameras-in-streetlights/) but these cameras do look different than the setups reported by the media. The media shows examples of construction barricades with cameras in them. The cameras we are reporting are probably better examples of what is really going on.
We don't know what agency specifically is responsible for this, but if we had to choose between DEA and ICE we would choose DEA because theses cameras don't appear to be pointed at Latino communities. The one at the gas station appears to be in a white community and this appears to be in a black community. ICE typically only targets people of color and those people are of a lighter pigment than the ones targeted here. The type of camera being used is basically identical in both cases as well as others recently discovered (https://copblaster.com/blast/20615/redditor-spots-unsecure-police-surveillance-cameras). The UX is the same and if you zoom out enough there is a little cover with round holes blocking your view. This could be the same federal agency operating in several cities all over the country or this could be local agencies that contract with the same camera company. A lot of police equipment companies ship all over the country and overseas, so just the cameras being the same is not enough by itself to blame the feds and at least one camera (which was password protected before we could see it) was reported to have been run by the LAPD, so without more information it is hard to know if these similarities are due to federal involvement or supply chain similarities, but local agencies like the LAPD often work with the feds, so that could explain the LAPD camera.