You'd be surprised how much can be done at the edge with current cameras. I'm not sure exactly how these particular ones are set up, but the other major players in the space (Axis,Bosch,Panasonic) all have pretty surprising levels of local compute dedicated to "AI", and leveraging external VMS platforms can exponentially increase capabilities. It's pretty idiot proof once set up, as it's aimed at desk jockies that monitor and report with minimal systems training.

Again, not this specific system but this stuff is far from sci-fi anymore.

It's been a while since I did that sort of thing, but from what I remember: The vast majority of "night vision" cameras are active IR, or sensitive enough that proper reflective surfaces trigger activity if they change a large enough area.

And the type of imagery these searches are looking for, would most likely be fooled by a couple of reflective strips blowing in the wind. Although I might recommend using strips of that reflective stuff on safety vests, that way you'd really "poison the pool".

EDIT:

Don't tape the strips across the street. Hang them nearer the camera so they occupy a larger area of the footage and triggers more easily. Although not on/close to the lens, that will make them notice too soon. You can even just tape a stick on top of the camera that goes up like a fishing rod, with some strands of fishing wire to reflect light in the moisture that condenses(basically a fake spiderweb).

Might give them trouble in pre-dawn hours, might not depending on the design. I doubt the municipalities and government agencies pay much of anything for data usage.

Fun fact, most places the department of transportation pays nothing for the electricity that runs street lights - electric company just gives it to them unmetered - in exchange for good and valuable consideration like right of way usage.

Ahh yes the local police! An infamous bastion of web security, IT infrastructure, and thinking long term. Who could ever crack the default passwords on their IT setup? How could we ever hope to social engineer these above average intelligence elite local cops into plugging in a usb drive to their work computer. This is all definitely impossible, no local police branch has ever been a victim of ransomware so we know for sure it can’t be done and deserves all the cynicism and comparisons to Hollywood movies from the 80s.

Of course we also know that by “anonymous types” I meant that one specific group of people you have in mind who did that one thing 10 years ago and not just socially conscious programmers with basic knowledge of social engineering and web infrastructure. That would be a ridiculous thing to mean of course.

That’s fair, you probably won’t brick their ai model but it can make it useless for that particular camera output.