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A more scalable system is already in place. Some cities have loitering planes 24/7 that are taking pictures every N seconds. They can go to the crime scene and trace the path of the criminals in the past, or follow them in ~real time.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/mass-surve...

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I remember hearing about this exact tech being used by the Americans to surveil Iraqis and trace suicide bombings (typically with a loitering blimp), described in breathless dystopian tones. I'm not sure why I'm surprised it's used by civilian agencies to watch American citizens. It's a kind of death of privacy in which you're constantly being watched and you can be watched even backwards through time.

Radiolab also covered Persistent Surveillance Systems but noted that the Baltimore program was ruled unconstitutional because the police had the ability to track everyone even when not suspected of a crime. https://radiolab.org/podcast/eye-sky-2306

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