Here is an auction for a “Power Pole Transformer Surveillance Camera Housing.” It sold for $50. I’ll bet you could make your own with parts from Ebay.
From this thread on an LE camera box, by a poster who makes such systems for Law Enforcement:
At least the equipment I put up has to go through regular court processes before deployment at a given site. Checks and balances are still there at the local level, at least. Higher up, not so much..
Obviously detection of pole surveillance is more about wondering why you have Cat6e going into the ground at each pole when there are no houses nearby, knowing when things such as line maintenance schedules have changed around you inexplicably, and knowing when the amount of data bandwidth sitting on the poles vastly exceeds the needs of the neighborhood where you live, than being able to spot the devices from the road. Although close inspection can obviously be useful, it will betray the fact that you suspect surveillance, which is the biggest no-no in the surveillance game. To that end, knowing your poles, and taking photos before surveillance is initiated is important, if you have any fears that anyone might be surveilling you someday in the future.
If the collapse happens, and you have the misfortune to have navigated the chaotic labyrinth to wealth and success in the post-collapse world, there are people who will want to come to take what you have. Some will be very professional, because professional will produce success, and in such a Darwinian environment, success will leave them the only thieves standing.
They will run their own networks of spotters, from plumbers to electricians, all given rewards for tips. All it will take is a little wiring problem in your house, and the electrician who shows up seeing the safe immersed in concrete in the floor of your basement, under the boxes he moves to get at an outlet, and the wheels can begin turning out of your sight. If they are good, your house will get a drive-by, and you will get one chance to catch it. If they are resourceful, they will wire your poles, and get eyes and ears on you to help them plan and avoid surprises. If I were prone to criminality, I would do exactly that.
That isn’t magic, or nearly impossible. Given a few grand, I could easily run battery power and Cat6e now to the front of your driveway, from a point out of your sight where I could piggyback an unsecured wifi. I would do it in a hardhat, coveralls, and a reflective orange vest, with a rented van with a power company sticker on it so nobody would look twice. Give me an electrician who used to work at the electric company, and I wouldn’t even need a battery change. Once installed, and routed through Tor, it would take the NSA to track you down if it could be done, and the NSA doesn’t do that simply to protect an American citizen from crime.
Surveillance awareness is the final step in completing your situational awareness. It isn’t about paranoia, or seeing ghosts where there are none. It is about keeping your eyes open, and seeing, simultaneously, every possibility that arises from your observations, knowing what observations are important, and knowing when the weight of multiple observations possibly indicating a threatening possibility, requires you to operate as if that possibility is reality.
