how is this any different from surveillance cameras or a cop on the beat?
Can de-fund both of those for their mostly useless levels of effectiveness. I could go deeper into why on the latter one as a former Sheriff’s dispatcher, but it’s not what you asked. By a quick answer:
Could park all the “beat” cops at various locations like we did ambulances and only roll them when calls came in, and very little would change in our society, and it’d be cheaper.
Seen many “beat cops” with their windows down and the AC off in recent years?
They can’t hear anything and only in the roughest parts of any large city do they actually catch anyone doing anything, and that’s mostly drug related, and frankly, that’s just revenue for an increasingly private for profit prison system and not having any real effect on crime. If anything the “Drug War” is exactly that, it triggers more violent crime than it stops.
As to what you asked about, the Federal level has specific limitations on what it can do in terms of who may surveil, why, who approves it, and also in terms of limitations to travel.
Quite different than the two things you mentioned. Both of which are mostly useless in stopping crime when measured objectively.
