If you didn’t already see the story, NYC is going to deploy a giant Roomba vacuum cleaner with cameras on it for additional security in the subway. Ok, it’s not actually a Roomba. It’s something called a K5 from a company called Knightscope. This 400 lb robot is equipped with continuous video recording, facial recognition, thermal anomaly detection, and license plate recognition. Somehow this thing is supposed to make the subways safer. Will it work, or is it just a stunt?

The premise of a wandering robot recording everything it sees and potentially spotting crime isn’t necessarily bad. The problem is – let’s say it spots someone stealing a ladies purse (I guess it could be a mans murse to be fair and balanced). Now what? If you’re not going to have real live officers in a place they can respond quickly, what did it deter?

Ah, but we’ll know who you are and come arrest you later for your evil-doing right? As every large city in the country is experiencing, there already aren’t enough officers to respond to real-time calls for service, let alone try to track down and arrest people after the fact. And even if there were, that only does any good if you’re actually going to prosecute and jail them. See California for how that’s working out.

So basically the NY mayor blew a chunk of budget he doesn’t have on a giant Roomba that rolls around and hopefully captures video of crimes that won’t be stopped or prosecuted. Mmm, ok.

It did make me think about the ever advancing security state. What level of privacy are you entitled to from state run surveillance? New York City already has more security cameras than a Vegas casino. They employ fleets of drones to watch any large crowds or gatherings. Obviously the courts have ruled generally that you have no expectation to privacy in public. But if the police were to set up a camera to watch and record your house and had officers actively follow you and video wherever you went, wouldn’t that level of surveillance require a warrant? Or at least some sort of official procedure and sign-off?

I’m not a lawyer and don’t know the answer to that. My point is, aren’t police cameras on every corner recording everything and creating a searchable record the same thing? This just seems like a slippery slope we’re headed down. If you live in a bigger city, the government is essentially recording your every movement, every place you go, what times you went, and who you interacted with. Who knows what they’re going to eventually do with that info. Hmmm. A giant, permanent database of every citizens movement patterns and network of friends and interactions? What could possibly go wrong?

Lawyers, woke liberals, and the George Soros funded prosecutors have made actually enforcing the law impossible. Too expensive in terms of cost, lawsuits, and negative press to arrest, prosecute, and jail criminals. The end result is the free for all you’re seeing in cities in California… coming to a town near you soon!

So politicians have thrown in the towel on any sort of traditional policing. The potential cost of doing the hard work to arrest bad guys is too high. Confronting a meth’d out psycho threatening people with a machete never ends well. Someone will capture it on cell phone video and the bed wetters will scream for the creation of crisis intervention teams to pass out therapy bears instead of armed police officers. And god forbid the subject is non-white. RACIST!

The end result is that the politicians will trade your freedom for the illusion of security. See, we’ll put all these cameras up and it will be like a force multiplier. We’ll see crime anywhere in the city and can respond. It’s like quadrupling our police department! Except there’s nobody to respond. Nobody to investigate. Nobody’s going to go track down that car jacking that was recorded.

So every city now has data centers containing multiple exabytes of stored surveillance data on its citizens. I know I’m a tad more skeptical than the average guy… but I’m pretty sure some bureaucrat will find a use for all that information.

You know, for your own good and all.