Source: Bilawal Sidhu
Wide-area motion imagery systems originally deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan—capable of tracking every moving object across an entire urban landscape and rewinding footage—have migrated into domestic law enforcement hands. Police departments in multiple U.S. cities have already tested or deployed variants, with limited public disclosure or regulatory frameworks governing their use. The technology's architects and vendors explicitly framed it as a temporary war measure, yet surveillance infrastructure, once installed, tends to persist. The shift raises concrete questions about scope creep when military tools designed for counterinsurgency lack meaningful civilian oversight.