I don't mind it. I work in the same field and people don't want to work in government institutions anymore, there are less and less kids in police/military schools. Cameras allow officers to stop patrolling and do more preventive work, focus on hard cases, etc. In a relative small city we manage 500+ cameras and more are added every day. The problem is storage and finding people to monitor them.
My only issue is getting it in hands of some crazy dictator, but that is another story.
> My only issue is getting it in hands of some crazy dictator, but that is another story.
That IS the story though. The kind of offences these cameras disuade pale in comparison with the risk of abuse of power infringed in the 99.999% of innocent people these cameras are pointed at suppose.
Most people don't grok the built-in threat. They only realize when inevitably they are in deep shit already, then all the 'how could we have known' empty phrases come to surface.
Every society gets what they deserve at the end (which doesn't mean every individual, thats why its optimal to live in society that has similar core values and moral 'height' to not be constantly depressed from fellow citizens and their decisions ie in voting).
Maintaining freedom requires continuous effort that can be unpleasant, not giving up privacies 1 by 1 to get deep into / maintain undisturbed comfort zone. Laziness is one way to kill freedom.
So you're okay with more and more power held by fewer and fewer people, but balk at all the power held by one person. Where is the line, how will you recognize it, and having done so how will you arrest the trend?
