Comment by try_the_bass

If you're only reading the stories of the false positives or the abuses of power, you're making your judgements on only a fraction of the available information.

I think the suffering/abuse is able to be reasonably controlled through increased/better oversight, more publicly available information, and more strict regulations around the use of the data produced by these devices.

I also think they're able to impart a whole lot of good on their communities. If they contribute to an increase in the number of arrests and convictions for crimes, that might end up being a net good.

I think starting from the assumption that they are net bad, and then telling me I should only look at the negatives is an uncompelling argument.

I need not look further than the testimony of people who used to commit crimes in areas with increased surveillance (i.e., San Francisco), and I see a compelling argument for their upsides. Now I have to weigh the positives and negatives against each other, and it stops being the clear-cut argument you're disingenuously presenting it as.