This threw me off on a tangent. I don't think your assumption is a leap.
Any more experienced planefags out there than I know if it's at all normal to be arial MAPPING a small-moderate midwest city at night?
There's a [17] in the callsign and mostly flying at 1,700ft. Which means I've heard it for like 3 passes now and it still hasn't even made it over to me yet.