House lawmaker contends DHS spying with traffic cameras, despite all evidence to the contrary
State House Rep. Steve Beaudoin (R-Rochester) argues the Department of Homeland Security is secretly using traffic cameras to spy on Granite Staters
“Were the Spaulding Turnpike cameras funded by DHS?” he wrote on Facebook. “If the cameras are simple traffic cameras, why can’t you see a feed from them like every other traffic camera in the state?”
One visitor answered by posting a link to the Web site where you can, in fact, view the feeds. Former Rep. Fred Leonard (R-Rochester), who is certainly no Obama apologist, tried to explain that the height of the cameras makes it impossible to use them for license plate scanning or facial recognition. “I know this stuff because it’s what I do,” Leonard wrote.
“I don’t buy it,” replied Beaudoin. “My source is irrefutable:”
Steve Beaudoin Were the Spaulding Turnpike cameras funded by DHS? Are they tied into the feeds from them? If the cameras are simple traffic cameras, why can’t you see a feed from them like every other traffic camera in the state?
Fred Leonard I’ve been to the site these cameras send their streams to…it’s a stand alone system that simply monitors…they are mounted so high with standard megapixel resolution that can’t read license plates or do facial recognition…they don’t record and they only give enough info to determine traffic…
Steve Beaudoin ^^not true, the feeds you see are not at all what the cameras are capable of, my source is irrefutable.
Fred Leonard Well I can tell you at a height of 65-90 ft with a fixed dome 3-5 megapixel camera there is no way they can generate enough resolution to determine any level of detail…and as I said, having been in the operations center and getting a detailed look at their system I am positive I know what I’m talking about…these cameras have no optical zoom capability, only digital…without optical zoom images will pixelate as you digitally zoom…I know this stuff because it’s what I do…
Steve Beaudoin I would like to argue this with you here but I can’t. Ask yourself this question, would you put a $200 camera on top of a $25,000 pole and equip it with a multi thousand dollar microwave communication system and spend $10 s of thousands more installing them? The images available on line are no better than those from a cheap camera you can buy from Northern Tool for $150. I don’t buy it.
Fred Leonard I guess you have to understand the technology to know what they are capable of…those cameras are $1000 cameras not being used for what they were designed for…if they wanted to get clear images at distances of 100 feet or more, they’d need to spend 2-3 times that amount…they need those expensive sturdy poles to ensure there’s no movement otherwise they wouldn’t be able to make anything out…it doesn’t take much to distort images from even the smallest movement…I’m not trying to argue, I’m trying to educate…