As much as I'm loath to praise Walmart for anything, their surveillance systems today are phenomenal and second-to-none. You can see it in the myriad shoplifting arrest footage videos posted on Youtube. The cops openly tell the workers they wish the city/county/state/whatever could use the same kind of systems because of how much easier it makes arrests.
As you say, everything's recorded. The moment you walk into a Walmart, anywhere in the world, you've been recorded on camera, your face captured and snapshotted, and matched against their massive (unified) database of known shoplifters. The standards of evidence here are non-existent and they aren't required to follow the same kinds of "due process" stuff the state is, and so even if they've never actually prosecuted you for whatever reason, if they even think you're a shoplifter, you're flagged for life and nothing's going to change that.
Walmart stores don't use "fake" camera bodies anymore; every camera-looking thing installed on their ceilings, walls and even store shelves is a real, working camera. They record everything within their lens' view. No frames are discarded until they age out of the system (their retention policy isn't publicly known or discussed, but you can rest assured they can easily replay footage from Aisle 14 from three weeks ago without difficulty, in astonishing image quality).
Any time their system observes a known shoplifter, it immediately flags them for complete digital tracking. Everything's recorded already anyway, but their surveillance system can automatically create a handy timeline for every tracked subject on-the-fly and hand a human observer (their loss prevention staff) a quick and easy seamless video showing the shoplifter's every move from literally every available angle from the moment he approaches the store to the moment he leaves. There is no doubt, no question, no wiggle room. These are all 4k cameras, with near-perfect coverage of every square foot of store space and parking lot and exterior areas too.
That's a lot of words to convey the simple idea: if you burn Walmart, they remember, and their computers remember. If you are stupid enough to ever go back to their stores, anywhere in the world, they are automatically and instantly watching your every fucking move, and if your stupidity is so profound that you find yourself compelled to steal again, they will be waiting for you (with the cops) at every exit, and their evidence package is already being transferred to permanent storage (with a copy being written to a USB drive to hand to the cop who arrives to make the arrest).
Now, they do all this for purely selfish reasons, but they're still good reasons. They're sick and fucking tired of being robbed blind by endless illegals, niggers and junkies, and they're forcing the issue by prosecuting literally every single one of the motherfuckers, without exception, and handing local prosecutors well-organized, high-quality evidence on silver platters and fucking daring them to bungle it.
Walmart also cheerfully ignores all complaints from the usual suspects about how certain products are locked up on shelves in certain stores. "That's waciss!" They don't care. Stop stealing liquid laundry detergent and expensive colognes and maybe they'll consider leaving such products out in the open instead of locking them down. Stupid niggers. "Food deserts"? Walmart don't give a fuck. They'll operate anywhere it's profitable to operate, and it's as simple as that. If they can eke a profit out of a terrible neighborhood swarming with thieves and thugs by locking down all the expensive shit and making it a pain in the ass for legitimate shoppers (while keeping the merchandise safe from thieves), they'll do it. If not, they leave. You made your food desert yourself, stupid niggers.
They're obviously doing all this for their own benefit (to improve their profit margin by reducing slack (theft) and discouraging undesirables), but it's a rare example of technology making a genuine, marked improvement for literally everybody but the bad actors trying to ruin things.
Imagine if a government actually used those Flock cameras for their intended purpose -- helping catch actual criminals -- and applied AI-based reasoning systems to criminal investigations no matter where they lead (and prosecuted when the evidence supported it, even if the suspect is a powerful politician or an "inconvenient" target). Y'know how "there's never a cop around when you need one?"
Imagine a highway that automatically sends speeding tickets to literally every car that speeds on a given stretch, but only when they can match the plate, make/model/year, and driver's face to known records so they can conclusively prove the accused person was driving. Where the evidence is so fucking bulletproof, even with every clever anti-automation anti-AI anti-technology argument the ambulance chaser lawyer class can come up with, you can't wriggle out of the ticket because despite the use of intelligent machines, the proof is overwhelming and comprehensive -- you were speeding. Now imagine hearing a judge say "sorry Senator, the facts are undeniable, the evidence is overwhelming, and so I find you guilty, and your fine stands. You were speeding. Time to pay up."
If our government were acting like that, I'd be all for a full-press AI deployment nationwide. But we all know they'll never do that. It's got to be pissing off honest detectives/investigators all around the world that these very useful tools are shackled by the endless need of high-ranking officials to protect themselves above all else. It certainly frustrates me.
Proposed grants include $2 million to challenge EU digital regulations, $5 million for Free Speech Union International, $2 million for Eastern European and Balkan groups, and funding for “anti-censorship efforts” in Brazil and “human rights documentation” in South Africa.
