I would put less credit to SciFi movies and more interest in cities that have gone all in on CCTV cameras as crime prevention. They rarely work, as folks desperate enough to commit regular street crime simply aren’t deterred. Combine that with the Candy Crush style of modern policing, particularly in dense areas like the NYC Subway or London city center, where the (relatively infrequent) crimes can happen within spitting distance of an officer and they’ll just stand around doing nothing in response.

What these enormous surveillance technology budgets mostly do is soak up money from paranoid business owners and politicians looking for a kickback. They’re a great source of patronage and a regular font of policing propaganda. And that’s really what they’re selling - security theater.

Just like with the TSA or the modern iteration of Mall Cops, they function more as a CYA move that lets you become seen as “doing something” (while fattening the wallets of a few insiders) in case of an unpredictable eventually. Now you can claim “We did everything we could” and “We’re going to find this person and really get’m!” So long as you keep the right people on your side, that’s normally enough to satisfy.