They're building a new school in my city and I've already been in it once during its beginning stages and had 0 issues. The fencing said there was active surveillance, but we saw no cameras after looking intensively. I want to go back to see the work they have done on the place, but I'm not sure if this time they'd possibly have cameras. I know there's no way for anyone else to tell for sure, but I was wondering if the fences saying there's cameras is a common deterrent even when there isn't.

And to note, there is light inside the building all night so there could be electricity already going to the building, meaning cameras would be operable. But, they are still building the place, so I can't imagine they would work with live wires while expanding the building, leading me to believe the lights and fans are probably battery or generator run.

I'm not really familiar with construction sites, so hopefully someone with more experience would be able to make a decent guess as to whether or not the place has cameras. The place is huge, so it's kinda getting hard to resist.

some construction sites use trail cams to surveil the property... they trigger with movement, work in the dark and store a few hours of video. Some have an alert trigger that can go to your phone/computer for real time viewing. They are fairly cheap, rugged and can be well hidden, especially on a site. They don't stand out like normal security camera's.

When I was in high school I used to go around to neighborhoods being built, as well as some hospitals and stuff being constructed near me. From my experience, they will usually have a few cameras near the main construction site entrance, but that's typically to stop trucks and stuff from stealing materials. I've seen a few sites that will have some cameras inside the buildings or a few more around the perimeter, but they're typically situated near the main entrance, as well as near all the materials which they'll usually keep around one area. If you scout it out and just keep in mind that there are a few spots that are more likely to have cams, then you'll be good.

Additionally, if they had cameras they probably wouldn't hardwire them to the electricity for the building, I've always seen battery-operated ones.

I did service work on construction sites for almost 8 years. And never once, did I see cameras here in Florida. No guards either. Temp fence with a lock or no lock. Sometimes, no fence. Active schools with construction going on are the hardest. Schools down here are just like prisons. Just be careful, It's a Felony if caught in this state...

Posted by Hawkwind I did service work on construction sites for almost 8 years. And never once, did I see cameras here in Florida. No guards either. Temp fence with a lock or no lock. Sometimes, no fence. Active schools with construction going on are the hardest. Schools down here are just like prisons. Just be careful, It's a Felony if caught in this state...

Luckily this school isn't active yet. I'm pretty sure it will open beginning of next school year in the start of September. I'm not sure why the situation would be hugely different in Wisconsin, but maybe different construction companies have different protocols depending on the local crime level or whatever. My city doesn't have that much crime, so I can't imagine they would be super worried about it if places down in Florida don't even bother.

Posted by Samurai some construction sites use trail cams to surveil the property... they trigger with movement, work in the dark and store a few hours of video. Some have an alert trigger that can go to your phone/computer for real time viewing. They are fairly cheap, rugged and can be well hidden, especially on a site. They don't stand out like normal security camera's.

I did see what appeared to be a fake camera last night. It actually kind of made me laugh at first because I can't believe it would actually be real. It was a common type (ceiling, half of a black sphere), but it was attached to a 2x4 which was then attached to a concrete block right next to the fence. Sure, it could be real, but it looked just like a decoy camera stuck on a piece of cantilevering wood with no wires, lights, or anything. It's almost like they placed it in plain sight for people to purposely see and be deterred. And even if it was real, that thing would not be motion activated. It's right next to the sidewalk. Any person moving on the sidewalk would trigger the motion system. I'm not sure if I wanna go back though. I'm obviously not going during the day and during the night all the lights are on and it's extremely easy to see inside except the parts that have some kind of saranwrap-like covering to them that are translucent. I just can't help but wonder what the new school will look like from the inside lol.

Posted by Euphoric From my experience, they will usually have a few cameras near the main construction site entrance, but that's typically to stop trucks and stuff from stealing materials. I've seen a few sites that will have some cameras inside the buildings or a few more around the perimeter

Have those cameras ever led to any "undesirables" turning up?

If they leave construction supplies & equipment on the site, it's not-only completely irresponsible to not have some sort of security camera system(s), but also probably would violate numerous contracts between the developer, construction companies, and the insurers of the site & equipment.

These days, the technology and expense of both overt & covert cameras, transmission methods (LTE) & monitoring is relatively minimal, and the risk of theft to construction materials is so-high, that I think it'd be idiotic to not have something in-place, and not a good gamble for an explorer to think any signage are bluffs though in the old days, the more warning signs there were, the more the likelihood that they were bluffing.


I can think of one site that had a long access road, and the first sign bordering the public property just basically said PRIVATE PROPERTY - NO TRESPASSING, but then if you passed that, the next sign, about 1/3 mile away, warned that trespassers would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law... The next sign, now over half a mile onto the property, stated US GOVT PROPERTY - NO TRESPASSING, and then the final sign, around a curve to block view of the compound, was a USAF CONTROLLED AREA sign citing Section 21, Internal Security Act of 1950; 50 USC 797 (look it up, should you ever consider trespassing on a DOD site) then the similar sign on the actual compound gate was a USAF RESTRICTED AREA sign with little red lettering on the bottom reading "USE OF DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED."

It actually didn't have any security other than a vehicle detection sensor about half a mile before the compound gate, and one CCTV camera focused on the gate area.

I'll see if I can attach a photo of the site, but I'm not gonna take time to shrink the image down if in 2024, uer.ca still requires attached images to be less than about 500KB.


On the other hand, I also knew of one privately-owned site that just had one generic N-T sign up at the primary access road & gate, but some pretty expensive, high-res hidden cameras up. The owner's philosophy was that while he wasn't inviting or encouraging any trespassing, he was hoping to easily catch so many in the act initially and be so merciless in-terms of pressing charges, that word would quickly spread that the site was not to be messed-with -- and that sort of word of mouth publicity was much more effective than having a bunch of signs up.


I was always selective & cautious back in the day, so any unwanted encounters weren't due to cameras, but with the tech available today, I'm glad I'm kinda retired from my old exploits.


The only signage that tended to stop me dead in my tracks were the N-T ones stating the area (usually in my case, an old military site) was now a nature preserve, because it would be pretty easy for a prosecutor to make the argument that my mere presence, as passive as I may have tried to make it, interrupted the breeding of some rare snail species or something, and thus a $10,000 fine was completely reasonable...


/-/oolie

Posted by /-/ooligan

Yeah the modern technology would make me turn right around if I saw signs like that. I was hoping that even if a site has cameras, I wouldn't give them a reason to check by not disturbing anything, but that's a little different if they are motion activated. But like you said, the more signs the more likely they are bluffing, there are literally signs warning about surveillance every 20 feet around the perimeter. And like I said, I saw a camera that looked unbelievably fake. Literally a camera stuck to a wooden board attached to a concrete block... 2 feet from the fence. But still, even if the cameras don't exist I'd imagine police or construction companies would be much larger sticklers than if I got caught in any old abandoned building. Especially a school planning to open next school year.

My sample size is very small (once), but the time I've gone onto a construction site with a sign about security/ the company that does the security services, I was caught.

Posted by Thecurious Have those cameras ever led to any "undesirables" turning up?

Not yet for me, I always try to scout out the area pretty good before I go in to avoid even being in frame of them. I probably have ran into a few cams on accident, but nothing has ever came up of it. They're probably just trail cams that aren't connected to anything like WiFi, but will store video if motion is detected. As long as you don't do anything too bad they usually don't care enough to look into it.

I actually just remembered this time I came face to face with a camera on an active demolition site and kind of just said fuck it and kept exploring after looking directly into it, and nothing ever happened.

Posted by Euphoric Not yet for me, I always try to scout out the area pretty good before I go in to avoid even being in frame of them. I probably have ran into a few cams on accident, but nothing has ever came up of it. They're probably just trail cams that aren't connected to anything like WiFi, but will store video if motion is detected. As long as you don't do anything too bad they usually don't care enough to look into it. I actually just remembered this time I came face to face with a camera on an active demolition site and kind of just said fuck it and kept exploring after looking directly into it, and nothing ever happened.

That thing about the WiFi makes me wanna try something. Do you think I could possibly stand nearby and try to see any Wifi connections that resemble anything construction related to see if it's possible that they're connected? I doubt they would, but there are field offices out back that look like campers so those might allow the cams to have wifi connection.
Either way this school is a good omen. Two schools are shutting down to be replaced by it...

Posted by Thecurious That thing about the WiFi makes me wanna try something. Do you think I could possibly stand nearby and try to see any Wifi connections that resemble anything construction related to see if it's possible that they're connected? I doubt they would, but there are field offices out back that look like campers so those might allow the cams to have wifi connection. Either way this school is a good omen. Two schools are shutting down to be replaced by it...

After thinking about it, they might be ran through some type of program that has a closed wireless connection, or one that's just hidden. With the right research and stuff you can probably find a program for a laptop or something that would show all connections, hidden or not, in the area. Most wireless cameras run on 700 MHz, 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 4.9 GHz, and 5 GHz RF bands, so that may help if you're looking for wireless connections. If they aren't hardwired in, which based on your description of the camera that's just on a wooden board they probably aren't, these would be the RF bands to search. I found this which could be useful, https://rfexplorer.com/ It can be paired with a laptop for more specific info, as you get closer to a wireless camera, the strength of the signals in one of those frequencies would go up, I think it would be a good tool to find hidden cameras in the future, and you'll know before you're too close to it.

If you aren't too concerned with the cameras, and just want to do a small check to see if you're safe, then you probably could just check the WiFi for the area and see if there are any connections that are out of the ordinary. They wouldn't name the connection something obvious so just be aware of that. Since it's just a school and not an HVT, unless you want to be extremely careful, you probably don't need to scan for all of the signals listed above, but I would definitely think about it in the future.

Good luck with the exploring man!

Thanks man. No idea why this site is making me so anxious lol.

Posted by Thecurious Thanks man. No idea why this site is making me so anxious lol.

I 100% feel you with that, right now I'm dealing with it on the old Detention Complex I made a thread about. Sometimes you just gotta dive in head first yk. Best of luck

Scouted again and took a few steps in to see if I could open a door, which was unfortunately nailed to the door frame. Upon walking around the perimeter of the property twice checking the internet, there is indeed WiFi inside the construction trailers and those "fake" looking cameras are all over behind the building I think. I took pictures of one and I wanted to know what you guys think about them. If they are real, I can't imagine they are motion activated but it may be a bad omen for what's inside.



My phone unfortunately doesn't have the greatest zoom quality. But as you can see, it's right by the sidewalk. No one would check that because that would be triggered on either side of the fence, which just isn't logical. I haven't seen any cams on the building itself, just those poles on concrete blocks. I want to make sure before making any assumptions, I don't really know much about security cameras.

Scouted again and took a few steps in to see if I could open a door, which was unfortunately nailed to the door frame. Upon walking around the perimeter of the property twice checking the internet, there is indeed WiFi inside the construction trailers and those "fake" looking cameras are all over behind the building I think. I took pictures of one and I wanted to know what you guys think about them. If they are real, I can't imagine they are motion activated but it may be a bad omen for what's inside.



My phone unfortunately doesn't have the greatest zoom quality. But as you can see, it's right by the sidewalk. No one would check that because that would be triggered on either side of the fence, which just isn't logical. I haven't seen any cams on the building itself, just those poles on concrete blocks. I want to make sure before making any assumptions, I don't really know much about security cameras.

No idea why that was posted twice. If a mod sees this would you mind deleting the duplicate along with this post? Sorry.

I don't have a ton of experience with construction sites, but I have seen a lot of security bluffs. Unless it's something ridiculous like "beware of dog" when there very clearly is no dog, it's typically best to assume that all sites have some form of security. There may be a camera or two pointed at the main entrance, but nothing around back. Maybe the cameras aren't monitored at all. I mainly explore abandoned buildings, so take this with a grain of salt.

I will say this though; construction sites have a much higher concentration of valuable and easy-to-get materials than abandoned buildings. Be careful around piles of copper pipes (or anything else with a lot of copper). That's what scrappers typically go after. Copper theft is a pretty big issue, so I wouldn't be surprised if security is at it's tightest around the site's copper.