Watching Rome Burn
This thread is as a sideshoot to one in which the use of drones and CCTV to survey matters came up, to which some people object.
When a bobby walks the beat, (s)he will be surveilling the comings and goings of those around him/her, keeping an eye out for persons of interest and acting as a deterrent and possibly giving pursuit if needs be, and able to call for assistance if required.
If the same bobby can sit in front of a set of monitors and is able to perform the same task over a far wider area, and have the technology to potentially ID miscreants via recognition software with the additional benefit of a recorded, er, record of events, then what's the difference and which is preferable?