Right now, what you can see, you can record. Restricting what you can record in public view) is, with few exceptions, both at the same time.
If something is Top Secret, you don't let people see it. Not just try and keep them from photographing it.
Same as walking down the street. Nothing legally stops anyone from taking your picture, other than polite convention (and some laws that are somewhat specific in their implementation).
So for the police to video what is in public isn't unprecedended, nor, in my opinion, is it a grave injustice, or illegal.
Saving said tapes and data isn't either. And if you want to prevent either of the above, you'll need new laws to change either or both of those equvilances. (But thanks for coming around to my way of thinking after a couple weeks, Brandioch, I was starting to give up).
I don't know if the Tampa police were doing anything as motivated as a tech grab - more likely, they HAD the cameras, why not see how they work?
But when a system is being put together, I don't object to some time to get things sorted out (when death isn't on the line).
You're right about the limits to government. But capturing images in public is rather well-established and has been for some time.
Building a database of said images, well, the implications of that worry me. But the way to solve that isn't to insist that they "can't do it", but to see how we can prevent them from doing it.
Addison