What cameras to recommend to neighbors, for neighborhood coverage?

[wtimothyholman]

Hi @wtimothyholman

Not saying a Wyze camera community setup is not useful.. especially with LPR data .. ( still I would want make and color of the vehicle also .. )

A lot depends on the response of the LEOs also .. in my experience, they wanted all 4 of the following:

1) clear pictures of the suspects,
2) clear pictures of the illegal acts ( being performed by those individuals ),
3) time stamps, and
4) clear documentation that the suspects have exceeded the thresh hold of damages / value that your local leo will do something about it.

5) LPR and car identification would be useful indeed also .. ( required for some cases, optional for others .. )

This all adds up to a significant amount of cameras for my situations I have looked at.

imho ymmv a lot depending on the interest of the leo's to follow through, some probably will be ok with less info.

Of course, in a case of murder it will have a higher priority vs car break-ins, and the leo probably will be happy with any info for that to start a proper investigation ( vs "property crimes" )

Yes, that is always the catch; getting your local PD to respond. Where I live, they are entirely too busy dealing with the latest gang- or drug-related shootings to spend much time on property crime unless you hand the evidence to them on a silver platter. On top of that, the judiciary will most likely slap the perps on the wrist and let them go, especially if they're juveniles. As I said, interdiction by residents may be the way we are headed. It's a form of pseudo-vigilantism, but when the PD and courts stop protecting residents, they take their own steps.

More pixels and bigger sensors is certainly better, as we all know. If @ILMP can convince some of his neighbors to install really good PoE varifocal cameras in a Blue Iris setup, that would be fantastic. But I can tell you from my own experience, in a neighborhood where many of my neighbors could easily afford a decent security camera installation, that it just won't happen. It's not a priority for them. Yes, they feel angry and violated when they become victims, but the determination to "do something" quickly fades away. They have insurance to cover the loss, and they have better things to do than learn about security cameras.

Take it from personal experience: @ILMP will have his hands full just trying to persuade his neighbors to install Wyze Cams. They are hardly optimal, but they are absolutely better than no cameras at all. Going from nothing to a PoE setup with Blue Iris or even a good NVR is too large a step function for your average homeowner.

 

[sebastiantombs]

I agree that going from zero to a full blown PoE system is way more than Joe Homeowner wants to do. On the other hand a Wyze that can't even supply a positive vehicle ID at night isn't going to solve the problem at all.

My two cents is that getting as many people in the neighborhood as possible involved and using a decent PoE camera is the best approach. Maybe a few in the neighborhood are at least semi-technically inclined and can help with getting them deployed and functioning. If you can find one person that is technically adept that person could set up the cameras really well and aggregate them on a single VMS system, assuming everyone with a camera has basic internet service. It's going to be hard to find enough people in such a relatively large area that are willing to make this kind of commitment though. If there are no technically adept people around, then you're stuck with finding a company that will work with you. If you can't find anyone reasonable, IE insists on using only cameras they supply, maybe you, personally, could add a camera or two. That might help if you can supply sample videos to show other residents.

I know at least two of my immediate neighbors have video surveillance systems. One of them works for Verizon as a fiber tech so he's pretty technically adept. They still come to me asking if I have video when something happens. They've both got big box systems that are marginal at best, as we all know.

 

[wtimothyholman]

I agree that going from zero to a full blown PoE system is way more than Joe Homeowner wants to do. On the other hand a Wyze that can't even supply a positive vehicle ID at night isn't going to solve the problem at all.

On the contrary, a network of Wyze Cams can tell you something quite useful, e.g.: "According to our video timestamps, a white SUV with this license plate that was carrying at least 3 passengers was involved in a break-in of several vehicles along our street between 2:15 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. last night."

Do you get a positive face ID on the individuals? No. Do you get a positive ID on the car? No (although if you're lucky, you can correlate the model and year to the plate). But the Wyze Cams can be quite sufficient for proving that the people in that car broke into your neighbor's car or garage, and the license plate of the car from the Flock Safety cameras at least gives the police something to work with.

If @ILMP can persuade a few of his neighbors to work with him to set up good PoE camera systems, then that would be great. But there's no reason why high-end PoE cameras and Wyze Cams should be mutually exclusive. My opinion is that if he can persuade multiple neighbors to spend $50 on a Wyze Cam, he'll find it easier later on to persuade some of them to upgrade once they realize what can be accomplished with better hardware.

 

[sebastiantombs]

I hate to be devils advocate, but a white SUV won't cut it in court or with police unless you can specify make, model at the minimum. If you can't get an ID on a person you're not going to get a plate of a vehicle, day or night. Sure, you can draw a line between time of the LPR, but there is always doubt and a good lawyer for the defense will exploit that. Wasting money and effort on Wyze level equipment is not productive tome at all.

 

[wtimothyholman]

I hate to be devils advocate, but a white SUV won't cut it in court or with police unless you can specify make, model at the minimum. If you can't get an ID on a person you're not going to get a plate of a vehicle, day or night. Sure, you can draw a line between time of the LPR, but there is always doubt and a good lawyer for the defense will exploit that. Wasting money and effort on Wyze level equipment is not productive tome at all.

It all depends on what you're trying to accomplish. If positive ID of faces and vehicles is mandatory, then high-end PoE cameras are clearly the only way to go. But if what you want is a "trip wire" system to give everyone a heads-up that criminals are in your neighborhood, and some useful information (general vehicle description, # of perps, license plate) to give to the police after the fact, then Flock LPR cameras combined with a network of Wyze Cams is far better than nothing at all.

High-end vs. low cost have their advantages and disadvantages. At this point @ILMP has read the arguments pro and con. It's up to him and his neighbors to decide their next step.

 

[bigredfish]

Huh? Is that Bot code?