Combining off the shelf technologies for a novel / desired result with little effort isn't garbage. For example, podcasts are practically just media and image files listed in some XML. Also, replicating something existing in a vacuum with no restrictions is easier than prototyping in a legacy beurcratic environment.
He didn't actually replicate an $86M project. The Victoria police signed a contract with Motorola for $17.3M in October of 2018 with Motorola part of which includes their ANPR system. It is a 5 year contract that will place cameras in 220 cars. The cameras will also record high quality video and audio. Among other things the contract includes 5 years of managed services regarding the operating of the ANPR and video/audio management system. A proper revised title for the article would be "I replicated an unknown fraction of a $17.3M project in 57 lines of code"
Q&A. Compliance, e.g. correctly storing the data, while allowing audited access. Ongoing, around the clock support. Etc
Not that it doesn't make sense to look into government overspending in IT, it happens all the time. But this angle of approaching it is ineffective at best.
OK, this story gets posted on HN every now and then, and this question always appears there. Like, really always. People always recommend reading "The Mythical Man-Month", also this link is always posted somewhere in the comments: https://danluu.com/sounds-easy/
Lawyers is probably most of this. Police departments want to outsource their blame when something goes wrong (as do major corporations, mind you), so they're paying someone to handwave mistakes away.
99% of corporate/enterprise product delivery isn't about the product, its about contractual blame assignment.
