Inside MDOT's Southeast Michigan Transportation Operations Center in Detroit

DETROIT, MI -- A building just outside downtown Detroit acts as the nerve center for the Michigan Department of Transportation's southeast region.

It contains 300 cameras with 2-mile zoom capabilities located on MDOT roadway throughout Metro Detroit and beyond.

MDOT employees and state police dispatchers share the cameras and facility.

The center exhibits how properly harnessed government technology can improve safety and government services; but also the power that, if unchecked, worries many, especially in light of the recent revelations of federal government spying by the National Security Agency on American citizens.

"The fist big misconception is that they're recording 24 hours a day; they are not," said State Police Lt. Mike Shaw, who oversee dispatchers at the facility. "A lot of people get the Big Brother syndrome... that's not the case.

"It allows the trooper to do their job and have somebody watch them."

The main function of the center is highway traffic safety. Access is shared between state police, who use the video feeds to advise troopers dispatched to crashes, and by MDOT employees to ease and respond to traffic issues, such as sections of road causing backups due to ice, snow or breakdowns.

Up until this week after a major snow storm dumped nearly 9 inches throughout Metro Detroit, it has operated its cameras without most people knowing from where.

Many who use the MiDrive website , which provides up-to-the-minute traffic and crash information and live images of highways to the public over the Internet, are accessing the very same cameras.

Diane Cross, a spokeswoman for MDOT, said the facility's existence until now was intentionally never advertised due to security concerns.

That changed Monday when Gov. Rick Snyder came to Detroit to tour the facility and invited media to tag along.

The MDOT Southeast Michigan Transportation Operations Center, abbreviated to SEMTOC, is an $11 million, 45,000-square-foot facility completed a year and a half ago at 1060 W. Fort in Detroit.

The inside is reminiscent of a space shuttle command center with ascending tiers of cubicles, each semi-circle desk with up to eight personal monitors, a mind-boggling 20-foot-tall wall of 24 more flat-screens that can be split up to display 96 video feeds -- or one enormous feed -- and a windowed, separate command room that peers over the work space from several stories above.

(See the video above for a glimpse inside the futuristic facility)

Gov. Rick Snyder tours the MDOT Southeast Michigan Transportation Operations Center in Detroit

On Monday, Snyder received a tour as the screens at the front of the room displayed multiple real-time crashes and highway-assist situations resulting from the recent snowstorm.

A vehicle was stuck in snowy center median on once screen. In another state police troopers diverted traffic around an apparent crash.

Employees, some wearing headsets, clicked between screens at their desks and aswered calls, some announcing new incidents, like, a "spin-out on the Davidson."

Snyder listened and watched with interest as he moved through the stations.

"We have (MDOT) people right with state police, so it also serves as the 911 dispatch for state police, it's a great opportunity to coordinate between transportation and public safety; one-stop shopping," the governor said.

Snyder, Shaw and SEMTOC Manager

Oladayo Akinyemi assure the public the cameras are not being used improperly.

"They're not spying on people, they're looking at vehicles," Snyder said. "You can see how important it is to get good information about traffic patterns... We want the best information and it gives the people at home an opportunity to see what traffic conditions are."

Watch MDOT traffic cams

Inside MDOT's Southeast Michigan Transportation Operations Center in Detroit

Although the cameras are always running and can be remotely controlled or zoomed, only four cameras can record at a time, which usually only happens when there is a major traffic incident, said Akinyemi.

Up until a few weeks ago, the operations center was one of a kind in the region; but the Macomb County Road Commission and Sheriff's Office, after visiting and learning from SEMTOC, build one of their own that officially opened in Warren Dec. 20.

The Macomb facility, though 20,000-square-feet smaller, cost about $2.3 million dollars more.