Surely it's not this easy to spot a dummy camera?

I don’t know why we get so excited about cameras. The footage is often poor (or non-existent), and a serious crim can obscure their features while they (easily) disable the camera anyway.

Oh wow, it’s just like in a crime or spy movie where they neatly snip the camera cable with pliers and get on with their work…

LHS is a bodge-job, presumably either the in-arm wiring’s become non-functional for whatever reason (drunks do seem likely) or the camera electronics have been replaced with something that can’t be wired through the stem (Looks like non-UV-stabilised ethernet cable, so methinks it’s a webcam of considerable cruddiness).

They’re Pelco EH3512/EH3515 Outdoor camera housings. A budget model that is NOT tamper or vandal resistant. http://www.pelco.com/sites/global/en/products/camera-solutions/range-presentation.page?p_function_id=9506&p_family_id=10240&p_range_id=2954
They’re so cheap in fact that unlike the more expensive Pelco housings, the wire isn’t fed through the bracket internally, but instead goes though some external loops, so as deye points out, is open to all sorts of hijinks. Can also assume that with the poor install, these don’t have the optional heaters and de-misters meaning in this weather, they’re useless plugged in or not.

I would say some idiot on a Friday/Saturday night has jumped up and pulled on the camera enclosure and broken the cable inside so this is the quick fix solution by drilling into the bootom of the wall bracket and feeding it into the lid.

These enclosures aren’t sold as dummy cameras and would be a very expensive dummy camera. It’s built to keep safe you most expensive parts.
It’s a Pelco EM3512 and they have a cable feedthrough the mount – RRP$364.00

It appears the camera is a Pelco EH5700 which states,

The enclosure opens from the rear. The forward-opening lid allows for maximum accessibility during installation and when camera and lens adjustments are necessary. A gas spring securely holds the lid when fully opened. The lid is secured with side-mount link-lock latches. If desired, the latches can be secured with a padlock of suitable size for additional security.

So I guess they’re installing/servicing the cameras.

Half of the technicians that appear at my work can’t complete jobs properly, it’s probably a quick install of a lens wiper. The tech probably couldn’t be bothered taking the camera apart..

http://www.pelco.com/sites/global/en/products/camera-solutions/range-presentation.page?p_function_id=9509&p_family_id=9802&p_range_id=6540#

The specs state that there’s cable holes in the bottom which I assume would then lead through the mount.
The cable leading into the top latch is a bit of a dodge job, probably just for configuration of the cameras.

I’ve wondered about the wires before. When they went in none of them had wires, then they started appearing on a few. I would have thought the wiring would be internal. It could be they are dummy wires for people to pull out when drunk.

Apologies for the dud pic. fixed.