I was driving through a city in western Michigan earlier this week and noticed that there are a lot of surveillance cameras attached to the tops of stoplights, but when I went home and did some research, it says that no city in Michigan uses red light cameras or speed cameras, and these cameras don’t like those to begin with. What is the purpose of these if they are not being used for traffic enforcement, according to data that was just released this month? (These cameras have been there quite a while, apparently.)
View a map of the Michigan Traffic Cameras here.
While the State of Michigan has not enacted any legislation for the installation of “surveillance cameras”, (as of the date of this article), there are many traffic cameras around the state. These are publicly available for travelers and government agencies to observe weather, traffic patterns, accidents, etc.
This official map shows lots of Michigan Traffic Information.
I live in Southwestern Michigan and there are definitely cameras on stop lights. While they may not be used to issue tickets (yet), they are probably used for traffic analysis.
My son lives in Florida, and they have lights on the tops of many stop lights. The lights turn on when the traffic signal is red. They are used so the police can tell exactly when the stop light is on when watching you from a different angle so they can tell if you ran a stop light or not.
Perhaps the ones you saw are like those?
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Just like AWBoater says, CCTVs mounted on traffic lights are used for traffic analysis. They are installed either by the traffic department of the city, or by local television networks.
Surveillance cameras are popping up everywhere! They can be quite useful. Check your local traffic situation out on google maps.
Scott