It started with one question: where were the photos I took of those flood-watch cameras up in the mountains? Answering it meant digging through years of my camera roll, and I found out I’ve been photographing unattended cameras for more than a decade without noticing I was building a collection.
Some of these are exactly what they look like. Some look like surveillance and turn out to be traffic plumbing. And one of them turned out to be quietly timing every driver’s average speed.
This is the field guide I wish I’d had. Every identification below is graded by how sure I am:
Plate 1 · Average-speed camera tower
Confirmed CDOT speed-safety camera · Blissway system · Roads & signals
Tall solar poles with a big black panel, a stylized “B” on it, and camera heads stacked down the mast. The “B” is Blissway, the vendor behind CDOT’s speed-enforcement cameras. These systems don’t clock you at one spot. They read your plate at one station and again at the next, then divide the distance by the travel time.
CDOT lists six cameras in the I-25 / US 50B interchange work zone in Pueblo, between Mile Points 99.3 and 100.8, including one northbound trailer unit. Warnings started June 30, 2026. From July 30, drivers averaging 10 mph or more over the work-zone limit get a $75 civil penalty mailed to the registered owner.
Field marks
- Large black-framed solar panel with a stylized “B”
- Three or more camera heads at different heights
- Lockable cabinet at the base
- Installed in pairs, a known distance apart, next to the travel lanes
Power: Solar + battery cabinet · Mount: Dedicated steel pole · Measures: Average speed between stations · Penalty: $75, 10+ mph over (CDOT)
Sighted: 2026-07-21 · 4:48 PM · 16 photos; Corridor: I-25 / US 50B work zone, Pueblo
Plate 2 · Signal detection sensor
Likely ID Video / radar vehicle detection on mast arms · Roads & signals
The small boxes clamped to traffic-signal mast arms are usually not enforcement cameras. They tell the signal controller that a car is waiting or a lane is filling, replacing the old wire loops cut into the pavement. Some are video, some are radar, and radar holds up better in snow, rain and glare.
Common makers include Iteris, Econolite (Autoscope), Wavetronix and Sensys. None of the units here had a readable label, so the make is unconfirmed.
Field marks
- Small box or short tube on the signal mast arm, aimed at the approach lanes
- Band-strapped, no solar panel, powered from the signal cabinet
- Often one per approach direction
Power: Signal cabinet · Mount: Signal mast arm or pole · Watches: Lane presence / queue · Enforcement: Not by design
Sighted: 2025-05-14 to 2026-09-04 · many intersections
Plate 3 · Portable work-zone signal
Likely ID Solar trailer signal with a site camera mast · Roads & signals
Temporary traffic signals on trailers, set up where road work has closed a lane. Each runs on its own solar panel and batteries, and the units talk to each other by radio. A separate mast nearby carries a camera and sensors watching the site. That’s common on active construction jobs, but its owner isn’t marked.
Field marks
- Signal heads on an orange folding arm, trailer-mounted
- Solar panel and battery box at the base
- A separate mast nearby with camera-style heads
Power: Solar + battery · Mount: Trailer / ballast · Watches: Work-zone traffic
Sighted: 2026-03-13 · 4 photos
Plate 4 · Flock plate reader
Confirmed Flock Safety “Falcon”-style ALPR camera · Plate readers
An automated license-plate reader. It photographs passing cars, reads the plate, and logs the vehicle’s details to a searchable cloud database used by police, business districts and HOAs. It runs on a small solar panel and cellular, so it can go up on almost any pole.
In Pueblo, the Pueblo Downtown Association bought two Flock ALPR cameras for busy intersections, coordinating with the City and CDOT. A Flock representative told KOAA the images are purged every 30 days. The units pictured here aren’t tied to that purchase, only to the same camera type.
Field marks
- Small, matte-black, shoebox-shaped camera
- One compact solar panel on the same pole
- Band-strapped to wooden utility poles
- Aimed along a traffic lane
Power: Solar + battery · Mount: Existing utility pole · Watches: Rear plates · Uplink: Cellular
Sighted: 2023-11-27 · 2:29–4:36 PM · 8 photos
Plate 5 · Hooded plate reader
Likely ID Newer Flock-style install · Plate readers
Same job as the Flock reader above, with a squarer body, a deep sun hood over the lens, and a heavier swing-arm bracket. The close-ups show a single cable running up to its own solar panel.
Field marks
- Boxy black body with a deep visor
- Ribbed side panels, label on the underside
- Swing-arm bracket, panel just above
Power: Solar + battery · Mount: Wood or steel pole · Watches: Plates
Sighted: 2026-09-13 · 7:08–7:11 PM · 6 photos
Plate 6 · Parking-lot plate reader
Likely ID Retail entrance pole · Plate readers
A slim pole with a tilted panel and one camera pointed at a store’s lot entrance. Retailers put readers like this on their own property to log vehicles coming and going. The layout matches the Flock units, but the photos were too far away to read a label.
Field marks
- Single tilted panel on a dedicated pole
- One camera aimed at the driveway
- On private retail property
Power: Solar + battery · Mount: Dedicated steel pole · Watches: Lot entrance
Sighted: 2025-05-27 · 6:46 PM · 2 photos
Plate 7 · Streetlight acoustic sensor
Likely ID Probable gunshot-detection sensor · Neighborhood sensors
Short white cylinders mounted on streetlight arms, with nothing that looks like a lens. Pueblo Police use SoundThinking’s ShotSpotter gunshot detection, which KKTV reported covers about seven square miles of the city. When shots are detected, a remote analyst reviews the alert before it goes to dispatch. I couldn’t confirm from public records where Pueblo’s sensors are mounted.
When a local resident asked online about a similar device, another commenter identified these as gunshot sensors. No label was readable on the units photographed, so this remains a probable ID.
Field marks
- Small white cylinder or pod on a streetlight arm
- No visible lens or solar panel
- Powered from the streetlight itself
- Repeats across a neighborhood
Power: Streetlight circuit · Mount: Light arm · Listens for: Impulse sounds · Program: Pueblo PD uses ShotSpotter
Sighted: 2024-02-01 · 1 photo; More sightings on other streetlights, 2025
Plate 8 · Mobile surveillance trailer
Confirmed LiveView Technologies unit · Parking lots & mobile units
A towable trailer with a telescoping mast, several cameras, floodlights and a loudspeaker. It runs on a solar panel and batteries and sends its video out by cellular. The LiveView Technologies (LVT) logo, the unit numbers and the “Patrol Cam” and “Official Surveillance Unit” decals make the ID easy.
They’re usually parked at the edge of a retail lot with the lights and strobes running, as much a deterrent as a recorder.
Field marks
- White box trailer with LVT branding and a unit number
- Mast with a cluster of cameras, lights and a speaker
- Tilted solar panel on the trailer
- Blue strobe and warning decals
Power: Solar + battery · Mount: Towable trailer, telescoping mast · Watches: Parking lot · Uplink: Cellular
Sighted: 2018-01-20 · night · 27 photos; 2020-02-19 · 4 photos; 2022-04-08 · 6 photos
Plate 9 · Guyed dome mast
Unidentified Rapid-deploy camera mast · Parking lots & mobile units
A light mast braced with guy wires, topped with a wide saucer of lenses facing different directions and powered by a ground solar array. The whole thing is built to go up fast and move later.
Field marks
- Wide, flat, multi-lens head
- Guy wires staked out from the mast
- Ground-frame solar panels
Power: Ground solar array · Mount: Guyed portable mast · Watches: 360°
Sighted: 2024-02-14 · 4 photos
Plate 10 · Light-pole camera pod
Unidentified Permanent parking-lot camera cluster · Parking lots & mobile units
A white enclosure bolted partway up a parking-lot light pole, with two or three cameras around it. It’s the permanent version of the trailer: wired power, no solar, part of the lot’s own lighting.
Field marks
- White box mid-pole under the light heads
- Two or three cameras around the box
- No solar panel
Power: Lot lighting circuit · Mount: Light pole · Watches: Parking lot
Sighted: 2018-07-20; 2023-09-13 · 5 photos; 2025-12-24 · 4 photos
Plate 11 · Mountain monitoring station
Likely ID Remote flood / weather camera site · Remote & vintage
A self-powered camera site in a high meadow above a creek, with no utility power. A pan-tilt dome watches the valley, with a solar panel and enclosures for batteries and radio. It’s the same kind of station USGS uses for the live creek cameras listed below.
Field marks
- PTZ dome at the top of a tall steel mast
- Solar panel mid-mast, plus one on its own stand
- Two gray enclosures at the base
- Long view down the drainage
Power: Solar + battery · Mount: Steel mast · Watches: Creek and valley · Operator: Not marked
Sighted: 2024-06-11 · 4:45–7:33 PM · 13 photos
Plate 12 · Fairgrounds pole, 2013
Unidentified Early security camera, light and speaker · Remote & vintage
The oldest sighting in the guide. A black box camera, a round floodlight and a horn speaker share a pole under a State Fair Grounds street sign. It’s a wired, pre-solar setup from before the plate-reader boom.
Field marks
- Box camera in a sun-shield housing
- Round floodlight and horn speaker on the same pole
- Wired, no solar
Power: Wired · Mount: Street pole · Watches: Fairgrounds entrance
Sighted: 2013-01-05 · 3 photos
Also in the field: live creek cameras near Beulah
The mountain station in the guide is the private cousin of a public network. USGS runs stream cameras on the creeks around Beulah and San Isabel, and you can look at them right now:
- Game Gulch at Highway 78
- South Creek at Pueblo Mountain Park Road
- North Creek above Panther Creek
- Willis Creek at Highway 165
Pueblo Ledger’s River Watch keeps them alongside the gauge data.
What I learned from my own camera roll
- Most pole boxes are not spying on you. The small units on signal mast arms are there so the light turns green.
- The ones that are, look friendly. A black shoebox and a little solar panel on a wooden pole is a plate reader, and it logs every car that passes.
- Speed cameras got smarter. The CDOT towers don’t care how fast you pass them. They care how long it took you to get from one to the next.
- Labels are the whole game. I could only confirm an ID where a logo, a unit number or an official page did the work. Everything else is labeled honestly.
Sources
- CDOT — Speeding drops in work zones; I-25/US 50B enforcement (June 2026)
- CDOT — $75 fines begin July 30 in the I-25/US 50B work zone
- CDOT — Location of speed enforcement cameras
- Denver7 — Blissway average-speed cameras on CO 119
- KOAA — License plate reading cameras coming to Pueblo
- KOAA — How ShotSpotter is changing crime response times in Pueblo
- KKTV — Gunshot detection technology helps Pueblo police (Dec 2025)
- USGS — HIVIS stream camera imagery
All photos are mine, taken 2013–2026. They’ve been resized and stripped of location data, with no readable plates or faces.