Maybe you trust the hardware and software and firmware to not be malicious or negligent (currently such assurances are extremely rare [1], so it's hard to overstate what a step up in security just this bare minimum would be), but what if it simply gets hacked by a nation-state level opponent? And there are so many ways to hack it - hardware and software supply chains, interdiction and replacement with compromised parts, attacking the software systems connected to it (maybe the camera is secure, but what about the computers it sends its signals to?), or the human systems, blackmailing an employee to insert a backdoored USB key somewhere...
Are traffic cameras worth the risk of giving away the movement of your key personnel, military and political, in the age of drone warfare and targeted strikes?
Fair. I see, you are against traffic cams in general? One approach is to take away their networking capabilities. Dump the data from them manually, physical access :) like 26 years ago in the year 2000 AD. But the police and agencies will cry about losing real time access (and surveillance) capabilities.
While you raise good arguments against wide deployment, politics will not backtrack. Despite the loopholes, despite the vulnerabilities, despite real life precedents, the juggernaut will keep moving. Much like blackouts or internet outages (Canada) that make payments, digital communication impossible, people will not rely any less on cashless payments etc. That's the blackpill.
The Navy drones article is terrifying. The easier solution is to not have wars at all (lol) then the problem is reduced to only corporate espionage.
Are traffic cameras worth the risk of giving away the movement of your key personnel, military and political, in the age of drone warfare and targeted strikes?
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49248678