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The DEA and ICE Are Hiding Surveillance Cameras In Streetlights (qz.com)

According to federal contracting documents, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have hidden an undisclosed number of covert surveillance cameras inside streetlights around the country. Quartz reports: According to government procurement data, the DEA has paid a Houston, Texas company called Cowboy Streetlight Concealments LLC roughly $22,000 since June 2018 for "video recording and reproducing equipment." ICE paid out about $28,000 to Cowboy Streetlight Concealments over the same period of time. It's unclear where the DEA and ICE streetlight cameras have been installed, or where the next deployments will take place. ICE offices in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio have provided funding for recent acquisitions from Cowboy Streetlight Concealments; the DEA's most recent purchases were funded by the agency's Office of Investigative Technology, which is located in Lorton, Virginia. "We do streetlight concealments and camera enclosures," Christie Crawford, who owns Cowboy Streetlight Concealments with her husband, 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."

26 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. State and country violations abound! by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When it comes to installing equipment on telephone poles and street lights, it's all tightly regulated. If they are doing this without any notification then they are likely violating multiple city/county regulations and state laws.

    Food for thought.

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    1. Re:State and country violations abound! by Gavagai80 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      And that's why the cameras are concealed: so that the city/county/state doesn't notice them.

      Parallel construction solves the problem for the DEA bringing a case to court. The ICE doesn't even need to worry about that.

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    2. Re:State and country violations abound! by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

      In times of crisis, sometimes the government has to go beyond the law. And clearly we are in a crisis, since illegal immigrants are murdering you right now.

      https://politics.theonion.com/...

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    3. Re:State and country violations abound! by msauve · · Score: 2

      Regulated? This is the government, rules don't apply as far as they're concerned.

      "hidden an undisclosed number of covert surveillance cameras inside streetlights around the country.... the DEA has paid a Houston, Texas company called Cowboy Streetlight Concealments LLC roughly $22,000"

      So, they installed 20 or 30 across the country, assuming the cowboys made a profit.

      --
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    4. Re:State and country violations abound! by PPH · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Until the lamp goes out or the city/county/state sends Bubba up with his ladder truck to do periodic maintenance.

      "Aw sheeeit! Must be all these extra gol durn wires that messed up the light."

      Takes side cutters, removes all the crap he doesn't recognize and re-lamps the fixture. Fixed. I've worked in the utility biz. Their database of who owns what is atrocious. They just go out and fix lights that the public report as being out. No sense risking complaints because "our records don't show who is responsible for that hardware."

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    5. Re:State and country violations abound! by Darinbob · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Generally cities own the streetlights. They have to repair them over time so they would notice. Many cities are moving to add sensors and the like to save money, so someone would notice soon enough. So if there are cameras I suspect that there's an agreement about them.

      Note that there are cameras on or near traffic lights even when not used to catch those who run the lights. Many are being used to count cars to estimate traffic patterns.

    6. Re:State and country violations abound! by lgw · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If your city actually fixes streetlights when their out, it's doing OK. It has its pension costs under control. Good on em. Last city I lived in in California just turned them all off to save money. Of course, that led to people stealing the copper out of the street lights, so a huge net loss long term, but that's Cali for you. (Fremont eventually gave in and fired a couple of government workers, the horror, and was back in the business of street lights and even filling pot holes, but it took years.)

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  2. Re:Why would they need to "hide" them there? by Aighearach · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hey, fuck you buddy, why the hell are you blaming Crete for this shit?

    Have you ever been to Crete? No.

    Do they have public surveillance in Crete? No.

    Do they even have good cell phone access in Crete? No.

    If you can manage to comprehend the story, this is being done by Fucking Texans!

  3. Clearly, the maths by rmdingler · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The local governors recently put up multiple $44,000 streetlight fixtures near interstate intersections, apparently without the Cowboy Neil? Streetlight Concealments... I wonder just exactly how many fixtures, retailing at $22k and $28K, could've been purchased for this insidious TLA deployment?

    --
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    Ernest Hemingway

  4. Re:Why would they need to "hide" them there? by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Do they have public surveillance in Crete? No.

    Oh really? https://www.researchgate.net/p...

    Do they even have good cell phone access in Crete? No.

    Crete is actually rather small and has cell phone coverage everywhere.

    If you can manage to comprehend the story, this is being done by Fucking Texans!

    Texans? What a bunch of cretins.

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    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  5. Re:Good by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Move to London then. They've got cameras all over. Doesn't seem to have done much about the crime though. Turns out that criminals can just cover their faces.

    I can't for the life of me imagine why people will gladly run to totalitarian solutions with arms wide open just because they think it will solve some other problem. It won't, but now you've just given the government more power and more control, and good luck clawing that back.

  6. At last... by pushing-robot · · Score: 2

    We can finally put an end to those terrible weed smokers and migrant workers.

    Well, probably not.

    But all it cost us was our rights and our privacy.

    And somewhere north of a trillion dollars.

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    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    1. Re: At last... by TimMD909 · · Score: 2

      While I am aware your comment was sarcastic, I have hope that the President legalizes weed. It seems like an amazing opportunity to make money. I know he likes making deals and money. I also know the criminal justice system makes a lot of money off nonviolent pot smokers. I'm curious to see how this shakes out. Does the money from taxing weed outweigh the money made from the justice system? If yes, then I'd imagine he'd push for legal weed treated much the same as alcohol, but with more tax and greater profit for the government and private sector alike.

    2. Re: At last... by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The President is an old fashioned booze and night club sort of guy. Weed is anathema to people into that. The guy owns an actual casino, for pete's sake.

    3. Re: At last... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Trump doesn't drink at all. His older brother died of alcoholism.

  7. Re: Why would they need to "hide" them there? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Woosh. Typical you missed the humor.

  8. Badly underpaid by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 3, Funny

    A contract with DEA and ICE for 6 months, and all you managed to fleece them for is $22,000? Lightweights.
    You need a better sales/marketing dept.

  9. I used to make concealments. by BobC · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It really doesn't take much effort to make a "good enough" concealment. Basically, the higher off the ground, the easier. Make them look like they're part of the utility infrastructure, and you're home free. The hard part is weatherproofing and hot days in the sun with no wind. For being rain-proof you want no holes, yet to cool down you do, since heat sinks are hard to hide.

    We primarily made concealments containing steerable high-zoom video cameras, the same ones used in high-end security systems, mounted to extremely accurate miniature PTZ bases. The cameras had internal image stabilization, but we also added external stabilization. Then we added automatic subject tracking, so no remote operator on a joystick was needed.

    They were bought by TLAs (Three Letter Agencies), and generally needed a warrant to be mounted and activated.

    When the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq started, we were asked to modify our technology to provide 360-degree surveillance for forward fire bases, who never had enough soldiers to use as sentries 24/7. Our systems turned out so good that we next had to integrate them with C4I systems, just as was done with the video from Predator drones. We initially built the systems into concealments, but soon found that beige paint was good enough, and we simply used sturdy tripods.

    When Somali pirates became a problem, we modified our systems so they could be mounted to ships to again provide 360 degree surveillance.

    We were riding high, a small company (well under 100 employees) who was by far the largest provider in a specialty market. Then the Budget Sequestration of 2011 hit, and all of our government customers not only became unable to buy our new products, they couldn't even fund support contracts or repairs. The guillotine fell, but fortunately we had already started a pivot toward vertical integration, to provide the communication systems needed to relay the surveillance video.

    We entered that market in the right way at the right time, and soon had a long list of prospective customers. But our reduced income caused us to burn through our cash stockpile, and then the banks to stop lending to us: The company folded just as our new products were ready to go into production. That really hurt.

    Looking back, my favorite product was the firebase surveillance system. We were told it had helped prevent countless sneak attacks.

  10. Surveillance by markdavis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is bad enough to have a surveillance state. I understand the need for security cameras, general traffic cameras, and even SOME surveillance cameras. But I personally draw the line at *concealed* cameras [and microphones]. I don't think they have any place in a free society... public or private, government or business. Government wants one installed? Get probable cause, get a time-limited warrant, they must be temporary and have a clear, present, and provable objective.

  11. When the libby libs say we should abolish ICE by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    this is why. ICE was a secondary and borderline paramilitary police force created in the wake of the 9/11 hysteria. We already had plenty of existing power structures in place to control immigration, we didn't need another. You should be very, very careful when folks are asking for entirely new police forces. Ask yourself, what can this new police force do that the old ones couldn't? You probably wouldn't like the answer.

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  12. Used to be... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Used to be if you said something like "The Government is Hiding Surveillance Cameras In Streetlights", you'd be labelled as a paranoid nut and probably locked up for you own good.

    Difference is, in 2018 it's actually true.

  13. Re:Why would they need to "hide" them there? by Scarletdown · · Score: 4, Funny

    The big Q is, "Are you pro Crete or con Crete?"

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  14. Re:Good by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The one time they've tried to change things and voted for Brexit, their rulers were outraged and are attempting to nullify the result.

    That is just so full of lies and/or stupid I don't know where to begin.

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    Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  15. Re:Good by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2, Insightful

    More lies from an idiot.

    Brexit, their rulers were outraged and are attempting to nullify the result.

    May is outraged? Johnson is outraged? Raab? Hunt? Reese-Mogg? Hell, even Corbyn?

    You're yet again simply lying about stuff because you want to blame teh ibruhls for things and in your view anything you can think of no matter how wild is true.

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    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  16. Re:Look up more by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    Most buildings have camera's in their elevators, think you are alone in the elevator and can scratch your balls?

    Making the people watching the video walls watch me scratch my balls is the only revenge available to me...

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  17. Talk about treason... by edris90 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We ought to string up the owners of this company by the nearest tree. And others who runs similar companies. This is clear betrayal against their fellow Americans for financial interest. Everyone e who lives in the USA knows we're in a cold war with our own government. Just a matter of time before it heats up