I have a single camera pointed at the pen where we keep our dogs. Other than that, cameras are useless. They show you a crime in commission. They don’t stop crime.
They do not prevent bad stuff from happening. They are for after the bad stuff happens. And bad stuff happens.
They are very useful. I had some kids spread tree sap they got onto their hands onto my car. Took minutes once I shared the video to have parents contacting me and dragging their kids over to apologize.
My son and his wife just moved from the French Quarter to the burbs in Nawlins. They ordered some of those cameras and before they could make it home, they were stolen off of the porch. A couple days later, three more packages stolen. Urban squalor.
Aren't there now motion sensor cameras you replace where you bell ring is, and they immediately contact your cell so you can see who is at the door? The system allows you to also talk to the person via a microphone. If the person looks suspicious you can just say, "Leave my property now. The police are on the way".
I see the ad on TV often and it seems to me the voice comms to a stranger could be a good deterrent. Plus, I believe they record the encounter. I'll try to find the name.
SimpliSafe is the one I see advertised mostly. There are others out there. Just Google “front door security camera” or such.
We have several outside HD cameras covering all of the access points to our house (none inside the house). They are motion detected and continue to record and to upload copies of the videos to the interweb even if our electricity and internet services are cut off (our security system has its own cellular connection and backup batteries).
I disagree that they are useless. If we are not home, we will have a pretty good video record of whoever broke into our house. If we are home the cameras will give us a few seconds of extra lead time to get our guns. Plus, the videos will show that the perp broke into our house before we shot him.
When seconds count, the police are only minutes or hours away (depending where you live), but I can have my gun in my hand and ready to fire in a couple of seconds.