For Moe Landry, a Lewiston barber, it started with heaps of dog poo scattered across his yard.

So frequently was the neighbor’s dog relieving itself on Moe’s property, he finally had to get the police involved and a woman was summonsed to court.

“She got pissed at me,” Moe says, “and she ripped my screen windows out.”

Police were able to charge the woman with that, too, but only because a neighbor had witnessed the vandalism. If no one had been there to see it happen, police told Moe, the vandalism would have gone unpunished.

That decided things for Moe. Very soon after, he got four security cameras and had them installed at various points around his Blake Street shop.

“With installation and the whole thing, I’ve got about $500 into it,” Moe says. “I’m glad I have them. It wasn’t a big expense and it keeps the neighborhood a little safer.”

Oh, the things Moe’s cameras have seen. Not long ago, he used footage from his cameras to help a woman who’s car had been backed into by another driver. When the police came, the man driving the offending car was insistent: The crash was her fault, he said. Why, she drove into the back of my car!

“You take a look at the surveillance cameras,” Moe says, “and it was a different story.”

That woman isn’t the only one happy with Moe Landry’s Alibi cameras. So are the local police. The cameras helped investigators solve a case where a woman had run over a friend. They helped investigators untangle a variety of mischief that occurred on Moe’s busy little section of Blake Street.

“Sometimes I’ll come in at 6 in the morning and see cops all over the place,” Moe says. “Something has happened overnight and they want to see my surveillance cameras. It’s helped out in a lot of ways.”

More on this later.

CAMERAS TAKE ON LAWLESS DRIVERS

For Gail Shelley, of Auburn, it was simple home security that prompted her to get hooked up, but it was a ceaseless parade of car wrecks in front of her house that made her cameras famous.

 

Four Nest cameras, is what Shelley got, and the footage she’s collected over the past couple years was enough to convince the city that a traffic light was needed in front of her Gamage Avenue/Park Avenue home.

“Accidents, oh yes,” says Shelley. “Lots of them. I shared video with all of the news outlets after our house got hit and that worked like a charm. That’s how we got the light. I was afraid I’d see someone get killed on the camera because no one was stopping.”

The spiffy new traffic light dramatically decreased the number of crashes, but that didn’t put Shelley’s Nest cameras out of a job. Now the cameras are there to record any kind of security threat or aggravation that comes her way – She and Moe Landry have something in common there.

“Here’s me in the yard picking up dog poop,” Shelley explains as she shares footage from a camera. “My neighbors were letting their dog in my yard to poop. What you can’t see is me yelling at them, telling them I have it on camera.”

The cameras also helped Shelley track down a runaway dog and they solved the mystery of exactly who was stealing food she left out for a stray cat.

“It was a skunk,” she says. “Saw it on camera.”

Ken Smotherman, of Lewiston, bought two Ring Spotlight cameras mainly because he wanted to keep an eye on some plants in his backyard. Since then, he’s been able to snag footage of a neighborhood kid misbehaving, a grown man acting oddly with a book of matches and what some might believe was a UFO swooping over his driveway.

“I believe it was just light on a spider web,” Smotherman says of the UFO footage. “But it sure looks cool, doesn’t it?”

SAY CHEESE WHEN YOU VISIT THESE PEOPLE

Lisa Mossburg Bridges got a Canary camera to keep an eye on her cats. Kristopher Pulk bought four Blink cameras because the world just isn’t as safe as it used to be and plus, the technology is just darn cool.

For Dan Cunliffe it was shoplifters, for Anissa Roberts an out-of-control relative, and for Nancy Townsend Johnson of Dixfield it was the creepy notion of strangers breaking into her home.

“Whether we have anything worth stealing is not the issue for me,” she says. “I do not want anyone going into my home and vandalizing it or taking anything, period. That would be such an invasion of our privacy and peace of mind.”

So many people are setting up security cameras these days, it might be easier to count the friends who don’t have them as opposed to those who do. And while the ubiquity of this technology might lead you to believe the world has become more dangerous and more of mischief than ever, that’s not entirely true.

The fact is, the technology is cheap these days and it’s not difficult to set up. Systems that might have costs thousands of dollars a decade ago can now be had for as little as $25 and set-up will take you all of 10 minutes.

No, really. In the interest of journalistic integrity – and because I like to mess with my cats when I’m away from home – I picked up a Morvelli Home Security Wifi Camera and slapped that puppy up in the kitchen.

It plugs into the wall, connects to your home wifi and is accessed through a simple app found in the Android and Apple stores. Set-up took five minutes and then the real magic was discovered.

It pans, it tilts, it zooms. It can see in the dark, it has two-way audio and it can detect any motion that occurs in front of its gazing eye. If you’d like, the Morvelli will send you alerts – including still images and video clips – no matter where in the world you happen to be. If you’d like, the camera will lock onto whatever it is that’s moving and it will record every step of the way.

Instruct it to record 24 hours a day, if you want to. Or set it to record only when something moves. The Morvelli and cameras like it will conduct themselves in any way you see fit. But for me, the coolest thing by far about the cameras is being able to access its live footage no matter where you are. Imagine it! I can view the glory of my kitchen at 2 in the morning, even if I happen to be inside a tent at a campground 300 miles away.

I’m not alone in my glee over this capability.

“Just being able to keep track of your house when you’re away,” says Smotherman, “is super helpful.”

“I love it,” says Mossburg Bridges, who has a Canary indoor security camera installed so she can discipline her pets remotely. “I can yell at my cats and tell them to get off the table. I get an alert on my phone every time they are in range of the camera.”

Nancy Townsend Johnson and her husband, Ralph, have a home in Maine and an apartment in northern Virginia. For the Maine house, they got several Amazon Cloud cameras , on sale for about $50 each, to cover each point of entry. When the couple is in Virginia, the cameras help them keep a close eye on their empty house up North.

“Ours are set up to work with my phone,” Nancy says. “If my phone is away, the cams are active. Otherwise they don’t record. We can change the settings, of course, but this way works for us. That means when I am not home and a camera picks up motion, we both get a notification about it, with a link to a video showing what’s what. The cams also have speakers so we can hear and speak through them.”

When you think of security camera footage, it’s easy to imagine the blurry, grainy images seen from store surveillance cameras every time there’s a stick-up. It makes you wonder what’s wrong with those store owners, because even the cheapest cameras these days offer beautiful, crisp, high-resolution images.

The humble Morvelli offers full high definition, producing images that are clear and sharp even when the camera is operating with night vision in low light. Stick one of these up in a corner at the Big Apple and police would be identifying robbers left and right.

Nor are the security cameras of today limited to plugs and outlets. So impressed was I by the Morvelli that I went and bought a second camera to be used outdoors. This was the Zumimall wireless wifi camera, my favorite of them all. It’s weatherproof and operates on rechargeable lithium-ion batteries so it can be placed anywhere around your home as long as it’s in range of your wifi router.

The Zumimall, like the Morvelli, offers up more bells and whistles than I need. It will alert me if something moves along my driveway or under the carport. It will send me quick notifications with a still image and video clip so I can identify the culprits skulking around my motorcycle.

The culprits are usually squirrels, UPS drivers or me trying to see if I can sneak by the camera.

“The novelty of that wears off real quick,” says Smotherman, of his camera alerts. “You get tired of getting notification after notification every time the mailman walks up to your house.”

The outdoor cameras that operate on battery power claim the batteries will last for several months before they need recharging. That may be true – I dispensed with all of that nonsense by purchasing a tiny solar panel that connects to the Zumimall and keeps it charged all the time.

Then I went out and bought a third camera from an entirely different company, which means I have to use three separate apps to control my cameras. Most people getting into the camera craze are much smarter than this.

Pulk, for instance, spent roughly $250 for four of Amazon’s Blink cameras, which he set up on all sides of his house. When Pulk wants to have a look at what’s going on around his home, he has to use just one single app to check all four cameras.

Should you decide to foray into the weird world of security cameras yourself, finding them won’t be a problem. Amazon alone has at least 20 pages worth of listings featuring indoor and outdoor cameras of all different styles, the bulk of them under $100.

Walmart has a good array of Nest and Ring cameras. Hardware stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot carry them, as well, along with a good range of doorbell cameras that have become popular with people who prefer to take a minimalist approach.

At about $100, the Ring doorbell is an understated piece of security equipment no larger than a deck of cards. Through it, you can hear, see and talk to anyone who appears at your door. The camera will alert you any time motion is detected near your door and it can be accessed through your phone, PC or tablet. All of that and you can install it without any wires at all.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH SYSTEM

Some of the more popular systems, like Smotherman’s Ring cameras, can be linked to other cameras in the neighborhood, provided those neighbors are on board. The result is a web of surveillance covering an entire street – or even several blocks, depending on how tech savvy and cooperative your neighbors are. It’s that kind of security that appeals to many who believe that the more friendly eyes are on a neighborhood, the safer it will be. When it comes to crime prevention and investigation, average Joes are becoming part of the process.

“In today’s world, surveillance video is a very powerful tool for us,” says Auburn police Chief Jason Moen. “Anytime we have video that can help link someone to a location where a crime has been committed, it is extremely helpful. Look at the Boston Marathon Bombing – video footage helped establish the suspect’s identification rapidly. Just last week out West, doorbell surveillance video captured a kidnapping in progress and led to the arrest of the suspect.”

The number of people offering up their camera footage to police seems to be rising by the day.

“Part of our neighborhood canvases in investigations now include asking if anyone has surveillance cameras,” Moen says. “People are usually very helpful to share their video with us if it can help solve a crime or bolster a prosecution.”

John Riordan has four ieGeek cameras he set up around his Lisbon Falls property. Like Moe Landry, the barber in downtown Lewiston, Riordan was quick to let his local police department know that they are welcome to view his footage to investigate crime or other mischief.

And now we enter an area where many begin to have misgivings about the concept of ubiquitous surveillance cameras. Put aside the spooky “1984” quality of cameras on every corner and you’ll still find plenty of legitimate concerns over the matter of personal privacy.

The security company Safety.com just this month published a report titled “Should you Give the Police Access to your Home Security Camera?” In the report, the writers found both pros and cons for the strange partnership between cops and citizens with cameras to share

In one survey of 422 burglars, the report states, 60% of respondents said that security cameras would make them choose a different target. In another experiment, camera company Ring partnered with the Los Angeles Police Department to install video doorbells in 41 of 400 Wilshire Park, California, homes. According to the report, neighborhood burglaries were cut by more than half compared to the year prior.

Unless you’re a burglar by trade, it sounds like a win all around. Yet there are more than a few reasons to be wary.

“Police are bound to local and federal laws restricting how they may collect evidence and investigate crimes,” according to the Safety.com report. “Private citizens monitoring their own property aren’t subject to the same restrictions. Offering up privately obtained footage helps police to legally circumvent governmental regulations that are in place to protect human rights.

We heard from one woman who initially bought cameras to keep watch on parking violators around her small business. But almost as soon as her cameras were up, they started recording footage of prostitutes providing their services in full daylight, drug dealers selling their wares on public streets and the aftermath of a shooting. Police have her footage from the latter and because the matter is presently active in the courts, the woman cannot share her footage with us or even talk about it publicly.

What’s more is that other studies have found that having cameras pointed at you around the clock may contribute to health problems by elevating levels of anxiety and stress.

The Helsinki Privacy experiment was a study of the long-term effects of ubiquitous surveillance and involved 10 volunteering households that were equipped with video cameras, microphones and computer loggers. The experiment revealed that under that kind of intense and constant scrutiny, most people will be driven to seek privacy anywhere they can find it – at least at first.

“Some spent more time in rooms that weren’t covered by cameras, while others retreated to cafes and libraries to discuss private matters and browse the internet undetected,” according to one analysis. “Having guests over was a particular source of anxiety. . . . Some subjects admitted to turning off the cameras during social events rather than explaining the study to friends. Subjects also wore more clothes at home and avoided intimate interactions in surveilled areas.”

But the report also revealed another fact that some may find most disturbing of them all. In essence, the experiment concluded that most people will gradually become accustomed to constant surveillance even if they oppose it.

Which I personally find troubling. I am a guy who not a year ago declared, loudly and frequently, that I’d never be one of those fools who voluntarily brings spyware into his home. Alexa? Google Assistant? You’re out of your mind. I don’t trust big corporations, I don’t trust the government and I have a healthy fear of mad geniuses who laugh at things like password protected wifi.

The thought has occurred to others, as well.

“I refuse to have any sort of wifi connected surveillance,” says Wayne Heyward, of Sabattus. “If I can use it to watch from away, so can a hacker.”

Legitimate concerns, all. Which makes it hard to explain why I now have three security cameras in my most private areas knowing full well that they are connected to the Internet – and knowing full well that the Internet as a rule is a privacy nightmare.

I suspect I was brainwashed in a sense – when cool technology meets affordability, what choice do you have but to embrace the keep-up-with-the-Joneses mentality and get yourself over to Amazon for that two-day shipping?

Maybe setting up your own cameras is empowering in some deeply psychological way. After all, cameras are going up all over the place whether you like it or not. At least now you can control some of these cameras rather than be merely a victim of them.

If that’s the case, then Dan Cunliffe is one super-empowered fellow. For the owner of Republic Jewelry and Collectibles in Auburn, ubiquitous security cameras are a way of life.

“Surveillance cameras,” Cunliffe says. “I like them a lot. I have 120 set up at my store and I have about 10 at my house. I just set up four wireless cameras at my dad’s house and set up a 16-camera system at his house in Florida.”

For Cunliffe, cameras aren’t a novelty, they’re just hard-headed practicality. With them, he’s been able to resolve issues with customers, keep track of his employees and inventory, and nab more shoplifters than he can count.

Although it’s not all work and no play. His cameras have captured great footage of Dan himself wiping out on the ice, a car driving through the side of his business and his father nearly getting crushed by a falling kitchen cabinet.

And perhaps that’s another reason why in-home security cameras have caught on the way they have. In an age where viral videos can make a person rich overnight, who DOESN’T want cameras rolling 24 hours a day to capture all the madcap adventures of an ordinary life?

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