Maybe they already have but can't tell you.

I don't see how you can simultaneously ask for constant protection from rapists and robbers and not want this technology installed.

Short of going back to cops on a street beat, with one on every corner, during every hour of the day, walking around in a big coat and twirling his baton around like in a Popeye cartoon, what else can be done?!

Police helicopter: meh, fine.

Much cheaper and safer drone that does exactly the same thing as a helicopter: OHMYGOD it's teh end of the world!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!

@ 4. You're either being obtuse (in which case, wocka wocka) or have completely failed to understand the question.

@4's comment is either brilliantly subtle sarcasm, or one of the stupidest things (amidst stiff competition) I've ever read on Slog.

I'm fine with cameras and don't see them as invading privacy but just an extension of the ability of the police to view you. If it's okay for a cop to see a crime with her eyeball and act against it, it should be okay for a cop to see a crime on a video screen and act against it. It's not like it's hunting, right? Not like the police ought to be extending criminals some arbitrary sporting chance at going unobserved.

The spying on personal data though is fucking bullshit. You expect to be potentially seen by a cop when you are out in public, but to have them secretly sifting through your phone? Fuck that - I'm shocked it's legal.

Peace officers observing our actions in public has some natural limiting factors: staffing levels and human memory ability. Human resources are scarce, so we allocate them judiciously. If we could afford to station officers with perfect memory on every corner, we'd have some problems to deal with. But that will never be practical. Installing electronic devices to track our every movement, word, and association, however, is likely to be practical---soon. Our government should treat people as innocent until proven guilty. The "store it all" attitude adopted by NSA is not appropriate at the federal level, and it's not appropriate at the local level.

@4 - go watch this video of a police helicopter flying over Seattle:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PL_02bi0UBI…

Done? Now tell me how a drone with a camera would be doing anything different than what Guardian One already does. Since we've shut down drones, do we need to shut down Guardian One? Do we need to have some sort of privacy task force for Guardian One, which has been doing its thing for more than 20 years?

Sorry, meant @5.

@9: Few of us, I believe, are much concerned about one drone replacing that one helicopter.

Even that one potential replacement to which you elude would be a bit of a problem, as a large, loud, helicopter spying on us cannot hide the way a small battery-powered drone can, and because the helicopter is used only sparingly, since it is orders of magnitude more costly to operate than a little drone is.

But we don't have a fleet of piloted Guardian One helicopters, with one hovering over every few blocks, recording where everyone goes and with whom everyone associates, and we never will have that, because that will always be cost prohibitive. Not so for drones.

Please imagine the implications not of today's $40,000 drone with a 15-minute flight time, but tomorrow's $400 drone that flies for hours on a charge.