Fact Checking the AI Capabilities of New Security Camera on Campus
Over Paideia week, an anonymous message was found in the Quest office that made the following claim: “Did you know that there is an AI camera in the theatre Annex lot? Palanteer [sic] shares these images with ICE! Please share.” The message likely refers to the new camera on the eastern side of the building at 5405 SE 28th Ave, in the fenced-off warehouse area to the west of the Reed College Theater Annex at 5415 SE 28th Ave. The Quest decided to fact check these rumors and determine their validity through observation of the camera and communication with Facilities and Community Safety.
The warehouse camera was placed there by Facilities in response to “multiple break-ins that we have experienced over the past few months” according to Executive Director of Facilities Operations, Steve Yeadon. Because the area behind the warehouse is “often unattended” due to the “recent vacancy of many of the commercial business[es] directly behind our property,” the perpetrators Yeadon refers to as the “bad guys” have targeted it for break-ins. Interim Director of Community Safety Kevin Williams confirmed that the break-ins at the warehouse area consisted of cutting the fence surrounding the warehouse and a broken handle on a fence. He is not aware that any physical break-in to any of the warehouse buildings occurred. He is also “not aware of anybody getting into there and taking items out.”
These warehouses and the yard between them hold, according to Yeadon, “only facilities related equipment and materials,” but Admissions, the library, the Sports Center, and Cooley Gallery have storage bays in the south building. “The general community does not have access to any of these space[s],” Yeadon added.
On top of the break-in at the warehouse area, there was a reported burglary at the Reed College Apartments (RCAs). Williams notes that this is “being investigated by the Portland Police Bureau.” As of Tuesday, February 10, “no updates have been received” by the PPB. He also does not believe that this burglary was perpetrated by the same individual who broke into the warehouse area. When asked about other plans for preventing these types of incidents from happening in the future, Williams states that he “request[s] any reader that sees something odd or unusual, ‘say something’ by calling CS,” that community safety “will provide safety tips and recommendations on [their] website and during any scheduled CS presentations” and “will increase [their] scheduled and unscheduled patrols.”
Both Yeadon and Williams have confirmed that the camera does not use AI facial identification software. Williams stated that he is “not aware of any cameras on this campus that can capture any image of anything and is related to AI.” He doesn’t “believe that exists anywhere on this campus,” noting that AI technology “costs money.” Before any movement towards AI-powered cameras would hypothetically happen, he believes that “there would be a number of significant discussions looking at corporate stakeholders here on campus about that,” and elaborated that he “can look you in the eye and tell you that I’m not aware of… any discussion at all” about implementing AI cameras on campus. Yeadon noted that the camera is equipped with “‘geofence’ technology” such that “it only sees as far as the fence and gates to the warehouse yard” and “does not cover the Annex or the Birchwood lot or buildings.” However, Yeadon stated that the camera does use AI, but its AI technology is “only capable of determining what an object is in a particular area, i.e. person, truck, car, bicycle etc.”
The claim that Palantir or ICE would be able to access images accessed on a security camera likely stems from a recent University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UWCHR) investigation. The study focuses on cameras from the Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) networks. These, as UWCHR found via public records requests, “enabled direct, 1:1 sharing of their networks with U.S. Border Patrol at some point during 2025; effectively opening the ‘front door’ for searches potentially related to civil immigration enforcement activities.” This information, combined with the recent development of Palantir’s ImmigrationOS software to “use artificial intelligence and data mining to identify, track, and deport suspected noncitizens,” according to the American Immigration Council, have raised concerns about surveillance technology. Flock has also recently partnered with Amazon-owned home-security company Ring.
The Quest was able to find no evidence of the cameras installed being Ring or Flock branded. Yeadon confirmed that the system installed is “designed and built by SafeSite here in Portland using components sourced from suppliers in California, Europe and Asia. It is called the SafeSite AIIRE.” On their website, SafeSite states that they “[d]etect risks, protect people, and prevent incidents before they happen” and that their AI “monitors high-risk areas, critical controls, and worker activity — providing real-time alerts, analytics, and insights that help prevent incidents, reduce fines, and support [Environmental, Social and Governance] goals.” SafeSite (who also refers to themselves as safe-site.ai) is an Australian company that lists their partners and customers as Nvidia, Microsoft Azure, Ultralytics, Belmore Engineering, Makdy Corporation, ASUS Kot, BKLA, Advantech, Rice Group, Oracle, Nfinity, The University of Newcastle Australia, and Hikvision.
Nvidia, one of the partners of SafeSight, is also a partner of Palantir. According to a Nvidia press release, Palantir is “[i]ntegrating NVIDIA accelerated computing, NVIDIA CUDA-X libraries and open-source NVIDIA Nemotron models into its Ontology framework at the core of the Palantir AI Platform.”
Regardless, Yeadon stresses that the data is secure, noting that “law enforcement does not have access to the system, and the analytics and storage are encrypted. Only the individuals Reed authorize will have access, and they will have permissions individually based on internal criteria and control.” He also states that “recorded footage is stored locally (edge) on an SSD built into the SafeSite System for security. We do not store footage in the cloud or at SafeSite HQ. Recorded footage generally is stored on site for 60 days until it is overwritten by new footage.”
After asking CCTV Supply Inc. customer support, it was confirmed that a compatible camera for this attachment bracket is the Hikvision DS-2CE72HFT-F28 5MP TVI Dome Full Color Night Camera, which also looks nearly identical to the cameras shown in the image due to the size of the lens and light feature underneath. The Hikvision camera does not list AI facial recognition technology in its features, and CCTV Supply Inc. confirmed that the camera has neither AI facial recognition technology nor ALPR capability. This aligns with previous claims that the camera in question does not use AI facial recognition technology made by Williams and Yeadon.
Hikvision, while used by police departments around the US such as in Memphis, has no known direct collaboration with the federal US government. Hikvision is partially owned by the Chinese government, and thus would be unlikely to partner with the US government. The cameras bear no resemblance to Flock security cameras—which are usually black and oval-shaped—nor to Ring cameras, which are more cylindrical with a rectangular camera compartment. Both can be seen in the comparison diagram below.
Yeadon also mentioned that Facilities is “trying this measure on a temporary basis [t]o see if we can get the bad behavior turned around.” Both Yeadon and Williams affirmed their commitment to student privacy and anonymity, with Yeadon noting that facilities is “being very careful to not infringe on the anonymity of our community while providing the appropriate protection of our collective properties.” Williams noted that “student privacy [is] one of the reasons why I’m here,” and that he’s “resolutely committed to student privacy.” “It’s not optional,” he said. “There are very strong federal laws in place and Reed protocols and policies in place as it relates to student privacy.” He also noted that his stance on student privacy was one of the topics brought up “when [Reed] was vetting who was going to come here as the interim director.”
When it comes to the future of cameras at Reed, Williams noted that Community Safety “would support installation in parking lots” but that he has “never seen cameras installed in classrooms or within dorm rooms, nor would [he] support such requests.” When asked about what the approval process for adding cameras around campus looks like, Williams mentioned that he “asked that same question about a week ago.” Although he was not involved with the process behind approving the camera at the warehouse, he “suggested that there be a written protocol for cameras” since other schools he’s worked at have had written protocols. He describes this as “a project that [he] intend[s] to see through to completion,” and reiterated that “There does need to be a written protocol, [and] at this time… I do not believe one exists.”
