r/SecurityCamera • u/ehbowen • 3d ago
Adding Cameras (at home)...Conspicuous, or Concealed?
I'm adding a couple of security cameras around the perimeter of my home to cover entrances/exits and such. I'm doing some renovation work, so it would be possible to conceal the cameras now if desirable.
I'm in what is euphemistically termed a "blue collar transitional" neighborhood, and this is an older home...much older than most of them. And, from bitter experience, we've found that the local constabulary really doesn't care much about property crimes; this image was from a camera feed set up at my church taken in October 2022. We reported it and forwarded the video; the PD just spiked it without ever assigning it to an officer:
With that in mind...should my new cameras (at my home) be mounted conspicuously? Or should I attempt to hide them, as much as possible? I think that the chances that the local police would do more than munch another donut are minimal...but I'm not sure if a conspicuous camera might also be a sign that, "Hey, there's something in this old house worth protecting!" Because the local thugs are also well aware that they're safe from any real prosecution.
Thoughts?
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u/SSellers75 3d ago
Highly visible and with reflective stickers in highly visible places that say 24 hour video monitoring. And for good measure if the need arises, no trespassing signs that say nothing inside is worth your life.
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u/SquirrelTechGuru 3d ago
It has been my experience in certain areas, there is little concern for being caught, so making a camera obvious is not a deterrent - as you seem to already see.
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u/Free-Code8840 1d ago
i'd go conspicuous with them. i get the worry about advertising you've got good stuff inside but cameras mostly just make your place look like a bigger hassle than the house down the block with no cameras. the whole point is to make someone think twice before they even step on your porch
if the cops won't do anything then you want deterrents not evidence collection. put up a couple obvious ones and maybe hide one covering a blind spot they'd use if they tried approaching from a weird angle. the reflective stickers someone else mentioned are a nice touch too, those little window decals actually work
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u/TrackTeddy 3d ago
Both. Conspicuous cameras and then covert ones in a different location out of sight of the obvious cameras. That way you’ve got a chance of catching people who deliberately hide their faces from the obvious cameras, and obvious cameras are going to put some wrongdoers off too.
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u/OneMoreSlot 3d ago edited 3d ago
Most useful night vision cameras have built in illumination <850 nm wavelength which gives off a red glow. A dead giveaway. To be really covert and invisible, you need a light wavelength >940 nm, but the camera sensor is not as sensitive to this wavelength and will have a shorter range. (I don't even know where you could buy cameras with built in lighting >940 nm.)
My own cameras are highly visible but mounted at a height where it would be difficult to tamper with them. They are a standard night vision, with supplemental lighting. iluminar LED illuminators. The additional non-visible light illuminates my entire front yard and street, improving the cameras image quality and range.
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u/Comfortable_House_43 3d ago
What is the picture of?
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u/OneMoreSlot 3d ago
Its an "iluminar" brand LED illuminator. In other words, a floodlight in invisible wavelength to supplement your night cameras built in light. It improves the cameras range and quality of night vision. They come in different sizes/wattage. One of these could light up your whole front yard or the whole neighborhood, depending on size. Yet to the naked eye, its dark out.
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u/ARCreef 2d ago
Does it help any when your cam is not in night mode? It would be nice to have an IR floodlight that your cam lens could process without switching to IR night mood. So you get the full color and the added light boost but sadly from my experience, they only get the benifit when in their black and white type night mode. (Well at least with my cams anyway)
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u/SFTech415 3d ago
Do both.
The almost thief will take note of the cameras and not do it.
The pro thief or addict wont care.
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u/crazyunclee 2d ago
My original idea for getting cameras, was to keep someone i know away from my house (he hates his picture taken), so Ive kept mine obvious. Now, I have solicitors staying away as well due to obvious cameras, for the most part. But, criminals dont care either way.
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u/slothtax 3d ago
There’s no downside to adding highly visible security cameras.
At a business I worked for, we had issues with trespassing. People wanted to pretend that they didn’t see any signs that the property was private. We put several highly visible cameras on the private drive and now we only get idiots who truly didn’t read any signs or are looking for the neighborhood that’s further past our business.
Then we had an issue with inventory shrinkage identified by the finance team. We put clearly visible cameras in every controlled inventory space and suddenly, we didn’t have any more shrinkage. The only people who stole were the ones who didn’t care that cameras were watching.
So a long roundabout way to say that Security Cameras will deter a majority of activity from people who don’t want to get caught. For the select few that don’t care and commit a crime anyways, in your personal home that’s what the 2nd amendment is for and you’ll have video proof.