[Lonestar1440]

Why would they "almost certainly" have been caught otherwise?

This is a load bearing component of your argument and it seems thin.

From my perspective, you are synthesizing a harm while ignoring the clear and concrete contribution.

[lelandfe]

Synthesize no longer: https://ij.org/police-have-reportedly-used-license-plate-rea...

[dghlsakjg]

Your argument cuts the other way too: the article doesn't say anything about the crime being unsolvable but for AI cameras that are part of a private nationwide surveillance network.

In fact, the only mention is via the police PR department, which presumably has an interest in making these cameras palatable to the public. There's nothing to say that a regular CCTV camera couldn't have been just as effective, or that normal police work wouldn't have gotten the job done ("We found him by his license plate" isn't exactly cutting edge applications of an AI panopticon, nor does it require cameras at all.)