Can anyone beat this for density of surveillance cameras? I know we live in a security-conscious world but I think this is a bit excessive. Spotted on Broad Street in Birmingham between the Hyatt Hotel and Symphony Hall. Or maybe there is a technical reason for this configuration? They seem to me, as a non-expert, on cursory examination to be capable of horizontal 360 degree rotation.
Has anyone noticed the growth of ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras at the exit of many motorway service stations?
Whilst on the subject of ANPR cameras, there was a major national news story last year about a blanket installation of ANPR cameras in the mainly Muslim areas of Birmingham, financed by a counter-terrorism budget and erected without local consultation. After a short and controversial political battle they were removed.
Now they seem to be sprouting up on many trunk roads and major routes into and out of Birmingham, so that the entire city is covered. Has anyone else noticed them? Are they sprouting up in other cities? I think there has long been a ring of such cameras around the City of London (the financial district)
Gregory Marler
Perhaps it’s to trick you into thinking that it’s a sculpture or street light and not cameras. Or redundancy, just in case one, and then two more, break. Then there’s added security, camera 1 keeps an eye on camera 2 being attacked, camera 2 covers camera 3’s back, and camera 3 oversees that camera 4 is working hard enough.
Simon Hewison
they don’t all have 360 degree views, the pole that holds them up gets in the way. In the same way, Google Streetview cameras have multiple cameras to try to cover a full panorama.
Mappa Mercia
On 360 degree views I did think of that possibility but I’ve seen the same model mounted elsewhere “upside down”, as it were, on top of the pole to give views uninterrupted by said pole.