America's 'Scarecrow' Surveillance Towers Are Spreading Fast – And They're Smarter Than You Think

If you've walked through a large parking lot, such as that of a car dealership or a shopping mall, you may have passed by a towering metallic mast with a small wheeled cart beneath it. These devices are known as "cameras on wheels," or "COWs," and if you're feeling intimidated by them, that's not an accident. Rather than the secret cameras placed above roads, COWs are there to be seen. These rapidly expanding surveillance devices are becoming a common fixture throughout the United States, and they're equipped with the latest in both video and audio monitoring and deterrent technologies.

COWs are manufactured by a variety of different security and surveillance technology companies, including the controversial Flock Safety and the Texas-based ECAM, and then rented out to both local and state police agencies or private security companies. These cameras have become a crime deterrence tool of choice for police departments in numerous U.S. States because of their ability to see and hear everything in their vicinity.

And now with artificial intelligence features, they're a simple set-and-forget solution that allows officers to easily and comprehensively monitor a particular area with a combination of multi-function cameras and two-way audio capability. The COWs' tall masts and mildly unsettling flashing lights have led to them receiving the unofficial nickname of "scarecrows," and security contractors are ramping up production to meet the demand from police.

COWs utilize a combination of solar power and internal batteries, making them largely self-sufficient once installed, usually in either a high-crime area or areas where police may have blind spots, such as large parking lots. A COW can monitor a full 360 degrees in high definition, constantly recording footage in their immediate vicinity. Moreover, they're loaded with the latest in security tech, including pan, tilt, and zoom functions, thermal and night vision modes, and even AI-powered recognition for things like faces and license plates, which might encourage you to wear reflective glasses.

Additionally, they're equipped with two-way audio, recording sound around them and allowing an officer to broadcast verbal warnings to those nearby, as well as sound loud alarms. COWs can even detect the sound of nearby gunshots to aid in triangulating the position of a discharged firearm. Police and security officers can connect to a COW unit from anywhere using either cellular networks or local Wi-Fi connections. This ease of use has made the devices incredibly popular, not to mention numerous, with ECAM alone maintaining an array of over 150,000 active cameras.

"Our first line of defense is deterrence. We stop crimes before they start," ECAM Vice President Niles Coates said in an interview with Los Angeles local news station KTLA5. "This presence alone reduces risk, and when activity escalates, our team can dispatch directly to local guard partners as well as law enforcement."