You Are Being Watched

image From the Flickr Photo Sharing site: "On a road in the middle of nowhere there are signs posted every few hundred yards warning that you are being recorded on CCTV. This is apparently an effort to stop illegal fly tippers from dumping their rubbish along the road. I had a look around for some cameras, but couldn't see any. I think it's a hoax." Although maybe there really are cameras hidden in the trees. There are speakers hidden in the trees at UC San Diego. You'll be walking along through the forest and suddenly, as if out of nowhere, music will start playing.

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Posted on Mon Nov 01, 2004


Comments

It's likely that there really are cameras out there, but only a few. They can make cameras small enough to be hard to see even if your standing next to the tree its nestled in, but they'd be too expensive to litter the whole area with 'em.

There's probably just one every fifty or hundred yards or so, just to keep a little bit of an eye out. I'm sure they depend more on the signs to keep people on the straight and narrow, but still work on the safe side just to be sure.
Posted by Jim North  on  Mon Nov 01, 2004  at  02:11 AM
I don't know...It doesn't really look real. Besides, when people dump trash the police just go through it & see if you have mail or something. And whats a fly tipper? Is that at all like cow tipping?
Posted by Maegan  on  Mon Nov 01, 2004  at  08:14 AM
I remember reading in The Da Vinci Code that most art museums install fake security cameras, because the cost of operating and monitoring real cameras would be way too high. So if art museums can't afford cameras, I can't imagine that a city government would install cameras way out in the middle of nowhere just on the off chance of catching an illegal dumper. Although illegal dumping can be a real problem.
Posted by Alex  on  Mon Nov 01, 2004  at  10:29 AM
It may be a hoax in some states but evidently here in Missouri its real: http://www.dnr.mo.gov/videos.htm
Posted by Aaron  on  Mon Nov 01, 2004  at  02:33 PM
That's awesome. Where in MO are you? I'm in KCMO. Great link.
Posted by Bill B.  on  Mon Nov 01, 2004  at  03:18 PM
I'm up in Kirksville. I'm a student at Truman State.
Posted by Aaron  on  Tue Nov 02, 2004  at  01:03 AM
You're better off using reverse-psychology. Don't put up signs if you have got cameres, put 'em up if you don't. That's what my park does...of course I live in extremely scuzzy part of England - Engladns scuzziest town (officially) even! So mine gets trashed anyway
Posted by Amy  on  Wed Nov 03, 2004  at  04:56 PM
Putting cameras all around an having one or two people monitor them is a lot cheaper than having a guard in every gallery and hallway, round the clock. But, of course, fake cameras (or unmonitored ones) are even cheaper. My apartment building has a fake security-cam in the parking lot. It looks fairly convincing until you notice that there are no wires connecting it to anything.
Posted by Big Gary C  on  Wed Nov 03, 2004  at  07:07 PM
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