In-Your-Face Bank Surveillance

Here's an example of a tower camera, marketed by ADT, for the same purpose.

Wells Fargo bank branches in the Seattle area use the same set-up except the domes are sitting straight up rather than angled.

So why put a dome on a stick when purpose-fit form factors like those above already exist? Price?

When I first saw it passing by, I immediately thought "how customer-friendly!" (NOT)

With the SunTrust bank in question, the entire bank is within a well-lit, large chain grocery store.... there is already surveillance everywhere, both inside and outside the building.

So if a robber was going to hit that bank, it is almost assuredly not a takeover robbery. Odds are, almost all instances where someone has robbed one of their in-store branches, that the perp slinked in like a regular shopper - probably wearing a hat to obscure his face from the numerous overhead cams.

So, the only really effective bank camera angle to provide shots the stores cams can't, is to mount them right on the counter facing up and at an angle towards the face of anyone standing in line.

That said, the placement SunTrust used in this location seems more intended to disuade the average store-bank robber from hitting them in the 1st place, since the cameras are so obviously aiming at their face from only 2 ft away.

Maybe it's an ingenius bank dummy cam array. Didn't see any blinking red lights though....

If you take better images, you will sell more cameras. The robbery images get all the attention at the banks, but it is the fraud problem that gets the funding. Real bank robbery images on line.

We used something similar to this for a university to capture pictures for student ID's in the bursar's office, but they were Logitech webcams.

They have these at self checkout at many of the home improvement stores in DC. This one is at a Home Depot.