This is an insane take, and I refuse to be gaslit into believing we can't do anything about crime because "well the cops will misuse it". I live in Oakland where the streets are a killing field with zero accountability being the default result.
I could pour BILLIONS into social programs and we'll still have sociopaths ghost riding or sitting on their phones doing 45 in a 30 zone. The cops have been useless from the get-go.
These cameras have been the last line of defense. The solution is obviously to take the cameras out of the hands of the cops and put them behind elected judges.
I was going to call you out for hyperbole, especially since the (AI) search overview had pedestrian deaths for 2025 at only 4, but previous years at around 10-15, which is pretty bad.
https://www.oaklandca.gov/Public-Safety-Streets/Traffic-Safe...
The numbers would be much higher if the city had any foot traffic [1]. It's dead, small businesses are dead, it's just not safe to walk around too much, everyone keeps it to a minimum and drives between parking lots in 5000lb tanks.
[1]: https://www.unacast.com/foot-traffic-data/oakland
I live in Oakland too, and I hate hate hate that we're enabling masked, unnamed government enforcers to kidnap people off the streets and potentially deport them without even verifying they are who they are thought to be.
I also know that we cannot afford to keep letting criminals run this town and destroy public property and kill people on the roads and get away with it
"and I hate hate hate that we're enabling masked, unnamed government"
Sidenote: As per the article, this is already illegal and was a mis-step on the part of SFPD and CHP searching OPD's database (OPD didn't give ICE anything). It sounds like whoever did it will be prosecuted.
I live in Oakland too, and was taken aback at first by calling it a killing field... until I actually admitted to myself that my greatest safety fear here is getting wiped out on foot or bike by some of the most atrocious drivers in the entire bay area with near-zero traffic enforcement.