I'm perfectly fine with such means of obtaining information, to be honest. In the same way I'm completely fine and for the idea of monitoring every square centimetre of public space (as long as none of the cameras can look into private homes, hospital rooms (halls in hospitals are okay, though) and the likes it's good.
What they do with it, that is something that should be limited.
They should not be able to look at recordings, emails, text-messages, etc. for no or personal reason
A man of the law should not be able to open the email-archives of his wife because he suspects her to cheat on him, for example.
They should not be able to view the archives of someone who they believe to be a terrorist, either. They should, however, be allowed to look into those archives if there is solid proof the person is involved in such practises.
On the subject of cameras on every public location:
The recordings may not be viewed for plain sightseeing.
They may be used however to solve crimes:
- A man stole a woman's purse ==> The woman gives the location and time of the event ==> the recording is searched ==> thief is revealed ==> thief will be followed to his current location and will be caught.
One should remember that justice and politics are separated, so politicians have no business within those archives. Only certain people from the law should have access, but only when there's enough evidence to already pin-point a certain individual, or for things like in my examples.
-Person got lost and they've got the last known location: follow that person through public places to his/her current location.
-Someone got murdered in a house: Go to the recordings of the area around the house at the time of the murder and identify all individuals leaving the house.
Additionally, a new and separate party should arise to monitor the rightful use of those archives. That party should not be allowed to see the archives, mind you.
At 11/08/2013, 15:32:14 officer X looked into the email archives of Y. Reason: Y is linked to terrorist activities (illegal guns and explosives in possession and member of the notorious Kryaohoshalala, a group who have claimed to be behind numerous bombings) ==> Rightful use
At 02/10/2014, 20:51:52 officer Z looked into the recordings of location W. Reason: Miss U's purse got stolen at blahblah ==> The archives of reported incidents do not hold this entry ==> No access granted.
Solving crimes would become much easier if the information was used properly.